Tuesday Dec 2nd

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is VOCM Open Line Call seven oh nine two
seven three fifty two eleven or one triple eight five
ninety eight six two six of viewsing opinions of this
programmer not necessarily those of this station. The biggest conversation
in Newfoundland and Labradors starts now Here's VOCM Open Line

(00:22):
Host Paddy Daily.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, all right and good morning to you. Thank you
very much for tuning into the program. It's Tuesday, December
the second. This is Open Line. I'm your host Patty Daily,
David Williams, He's produced the program. You'll be speaking with
Dave when you pick up the phone to give us
a call in the queue on the air if you're
in the same time as Metro Region. The number of
dialists seven zero nine two seven three five two one

(00:43):
one elsewhere a toll free long distance one eight eight
eight five ninety VOCM, which is eighty six twenty six.
So I've been asked, why not a lot of love
for the Newfland regiment playing in the Quebec Major Junior
Hockey League. Let's do it then? Friday night, which I
watched pretty entertaining game high scoring eight five lost the
Halifax Mooseheads, bounce back Saturday night. They were up one

(01:04):
nothing seventeen seconds in. By the end of the first
up four to nothing, end up winning the game seven
to nothing. So a pretty nice bounce back win. Final
games of the calendar year this coming weekend Saturday and
Sunday down at the Mary Brown Center, Charlottetown in Town.
So there you go. There's the love or just another
quick hockey note. Especially Montreal Canadian fans will remember this
infamous day. On this date, nineteen ninety five, the coach

(01:27):
of the Habs at the time, Mario Tromblay, leaves Patrick
Gawha in the game for nine goals against the Detroit
Red Wings, Ross storms past. Tromblay demands the trade, gets
it goes. The Colorado wins the Cup, raw Enzi's career
with the Montreal Canadians because Tromblay would not haul him out,
save him some of that egg on the face. Oh,
I want to give a shout out to a few

(01:48):
local soccer players. This is pretty great achievement. Two young
soccer players from this province. Look at the Paskia and
Luke Fahey around Tarlo with the Vancouver white Caps, and
that's of course an MLS team, So that's brilliant stuff.
And one of the Garlds Arland winters has been selected
for trial with the Vancouveris in the NFL, so good
luck to Luca Luke and Ireland. Go get them all right.

(02:08):
Today is Giving Tuesday. It's a global phenomenon. You don't
need me to tell you that. The need is real,
demand is up. Donations are down pretty much across the board.
So if you have the capacity, just pick one of
your favorite charities, something close to your heart or something
that's had an impact on your family, and if possible,
you can make a donation today, Harry, I want to

(02:30):
pick up on a phone call we had last week
from a fellow named Jim Hines, who, over the course
of the last decade will say has made contributions well
in excess of three hundred thousand dollars of the RNC
for a variety of initiatives, including Stella, the mental health
support dog. We still have no earthly idea as to
why Stella is not part of the fault, but this
was about retiring police dogs. Members of the K nine unit,

(02:53):
so we hear them quite frequently applauded for the work
they do in the community and the additional layer of
safety that they provide their partners RNC human being officers.
But what happens when they retire? So Jim owns two
of these retired police dogs. One is called Chaos, used
to be a canine officer with the RCNP, and Dally,
who was with the RNC. Apparently after their retirement, they

(03:15):
tend not to live too much longer, maybe on average
a couple of years, probably have some serious health concerns,
including one of Jim's dogs. So at this moment in time,
Heines gets support from the r and C for that
retired dog, but for the RCNP nothing. So the thought is,
should there be some sort of obligatory financial support for
these retired canine dogs canine officers, I guess the right

(03:38):
way to put it makes sense to me they do
pretty important work. To turn your back on those police
dogs seems pretty call and collage. Jim Heines calls it
a shameful and I tend to agree. And yesterday, many
days talk about veterinarian care and access to and a
cost of and I get lots of emails down but
maybe someone will like to consider calling today? All right

(04:00):
on that front, it would be nice to get some
update from the AIRCMP as to whether the investigation into
the cause of the north Shore fire continues or what
we know during the active investigations, generally speaking, get very
little to no information. But for residents of the north
Shore who were maybe one of the two hundred structures
loss was belonged to, you feel free to give the

(04:21):
call and give us a status update on where we
are inso fires financial support from various levels of government
to get back on the feet, to understand how to rebuild,
where to rebuild all of those different parts. But were
told the investigation continues on the north Shore, so fingers
crossed that they get to the bottom of it. And
remember residents were signaling the arms, putting up the red flags,

(04:45):
talking about taking it upon themselves to be in the woods,
in the bush, hiding, watching looking around for smoke, and
several occasions found it and managed to put out small
fires before they became big fires like the Kingston fire.
Anyway you want to talk about it, let's go. There
was called yesterday about someone who should be behind biers

(05:05):
is not behind bars and out committing crimes. And you
wonder where the new federal legislation goes. People refer to
it as tough on crime, and there's plenty in it.
What are the keys in so far as bail goes,
because we know there's a huge issue with bail in
this country, is reverse onus, which means it's not about
the crown proving that you don't deserve bail. It's for

(05:26):
those who are accused to have to prove why they
should be released, which sounds like a split of a hair,
but it's not. It's a distinct difference. Then they talk
about tougher sentencing, consecutive sentences, So this new legislation says
mandatory consecutive sentences for offenses like violent auto theft, break
and enter, meaning for multiple crimes you can have deserved

(05:46):
the sentences one after the other consecutively. And they talk
about also ending house arrest, so conditional sentences if you're
talking about certain sexual assaults, child sexual offense convictions, making
sure that those convicted end up iron bars at a
correctional facility. Then they talk about driving prohibitions, new aggravating factors,
hiring new officers to the tune of one thousand new

(06:08):
RCMP officers. That's going to cost or has a price
tag in and around one point eight billion dollars, and
as we mentioned in the past, and this is inevitable,
this will be decided as to whether or not it
will become actual law of the land by the Supreme
Court of Canada, just like when Prime Minister Stephen Harper
tried the same thing. So you want to take on
the tough on crime business, let's do it, all right.

(06:29):
I have no work to the idea exactly what's going
on here, but the errants here are investigating what they
call two suspicious deaths in the center city, all the
Shots Street. So if you have any video footage of
the area between two am and nine am on Sunday morning,
please do indeed relay that information to the members of

(06:50):
the R and C. Two men dead, thirty eight and
fifty three. Who knows what's going on there, but my
email is trying to tell me that it's drug related,
but I don't know, and I guess we'll fall in
doubt if they get to the bottom of it. And
speaking of drugs, this is a good story that the
CBC had up this morning and we know it to
be true. Drug addictions, the beginning of your drug addiction

(07:11):
can start with their doctor's prescription pad. Then we talk
about access to drugs and it's all organized crime, the
criminal element from the Hell's Angels on down. But another
source of some narcotics that end up on the street
can come from health care facilities where they're stolen. This
is an interesting story. So back in June, the end
of June, the Air and C were called over to

(07:32):
the Janeway and it was about some drugs missing from
a pharmaceutical cabinet. We don't have a whole lot of
detail as to whether or not it was one cabinet,
multiple cabinets, or how much in the way drugs was taken.
And of course Newfland Labador Health Services. They say there's
enhanced surveillance now to try to reduce the occurrences. But
that's not the first one. Apparently, even just this year,

(07:54):
no charges will be laid in this investigation as to
what happened at the Januay, but obviously healthcare settings, whether
it be the Janeway, the Health Sciences, Saint Clair's West
Coast Hospitals, long term care facilities, to ensure that those
drugs don't end up on the street is pretty important stuff.
So apparently the two most popular drugs being stolen are Lorazzapan,

(08:14):
which is adavan. The story goes on to say it's
sold for about five bucks a pill on the street,
as compared to say, fentanyl, which can be as much
as five hundred dollars. But it's just another wrinkle into
how much drugs is on the street and yet another
layer to where those drugs come from. And apparently look,
remember I think it was last year, the year before,
there were some four million dollars worth of drugs stolen

(08:35):
from Ontario pharmacy just disappeared. I can't even remember if
there was any arrest made on that front. So let's
get another couple of these incidents from local healthcare facilities.
In March twenty twenty one, one Lorazzapan pills which of
course adavan, stolen from the former Waterford Hospital. Then seven
months later the same amount was reported taking from the

(08:56):
Carpenter General Hospital. Man oh Man, I think we should
be able to do more to ensure that the drugs
supply in narcotics at the hospitals or healthcare settings are
protected as best possible. And in the world of health,
you know, I keep hearing a lot about the ten
year roadmap for healthcare staffing put forward by Deloitte, submitted

(09:18):
to the government and lo and behold. Just like in
the educational corp, there were some AI generated fake citations.
Now Deloitte says they stand by the work and they're
reviewing the errors. You know, it's really unfortunate that in
the world of citations, and let's be honest, for folks
out there who are digging into these reports. I don't
know how many people listening to the program this morning
are going through all the footnotes to ensure the accuracy

(09:42):
of citations in papers. I would imagine that number is
quite small. It's the content of the report that I
think we should be leaning in on. I get one
credibility is brought into question because of these types of things.
But there's been so much work done and so much
money spent to produce these documents. If AI is not
being used as part of the content itself, as opposed

(10:05):
to just inside some of the footnotes, then how can
we get around some of this. It's really a problem.
We also need legislation in this province to ensure that
government has a real firm grip on using artificial intelligence,
how and where and why they use it because it
could be hugely problematic. People seem to think that it's

(10:25):
really quite accurate when you go to some of these
large language models like chat GPT. I read an interesting
story which made me have a little deeper look into
the numbers. And I don't know if this is a
true story, but it's an interesting exercise here I'll read
it out. I recently heard about a teacher who, instead
of trying to circumvent students from using AI, which is impossible,

(10:47):
she made assignments like this, ask chat gpt to write
a report on this subject and then research how and
why it's wrong. Not only did the students discover that
chat gpt is extremely wrong much of the time, it
also led them to realize they should not use it
as a primary source. You know full well inside the
education system. So many students are going to be using

(11:09):
these chat GPTs or similar AI platforms. It's a problem
not only for their critical thinking, but just how frequently
it's wrong. So I had to look around and read
a couple of studies. One said as high as fifty
two percent for computer programming questions and more than sixty
percent for queries about news agencies. And articles were wrong

(11:30):
for medical content. This is published by the National Institutes
of Health, found a forty seven percent fabrication rate for
references it made in medical content, only seven percent were
wholly accurate journalistic queries general statements. One paper said that
chat GPT agreed with incorrect statements anywhere from four point
eight to twenty six percent of the time. So apparently AI,

(11:51):
which is automation, has the possibility what they refer to
as hallucinations, and they generate information that's based on facts
at all. So while our young students are maybe having
a hard time with critical thinking already, the fact that
they're going to lean in on these large language models
like chat EPT, inevitably they're going to get a lot

(12:12):
wrong through laziness, plain and simple. Anyway, I thought that
was an interesting facet of it. But if you want
to take it on, we can do it. Also, based
on an absolutely horrendous email that I was sent overnight,
and it's about elder abuse, and I'm not going to
get into the details because it may indeed unfortunately identify
the family, but the story was brutal and apparently around

(12:37):
this time year, instances of elder abuse can increase so
for individuals listening, or for your sons and daughters to
keep an eye on your senior parents about what might
be happening to them, whether it be physical or psychological,
or emotional, financial, sexual. The unbelievable part of this story

(12:57):
is far too often or all too common, it's someone
in their family and I'd really like to read out
this entire family incident that this one lady relates to me,
But it is unbelievably scary and sad. So whether it
be your own social circles, to be able to identify
the signs where one of your elder friends is on
the receiving end of abuse, and all the way through

(13:19):
the gamut, whether they're being abandoned or neglected, some of
the rights are being violated, medications being misused or stolen,
whether it be there be credit cards have been taken over,
money being stolen, and that level of worry you can't
manifest itself with the look on your face. So the
whole concept of elder abuse is rampant, and how many

(13:40):
people would be unwilling to even come forward? Why the
embarrassment in the stigma to know that who belongs to
you someone of your children was willing and wanting to
take advantage of you in any of the aforementioned categories.
It is so sad, and this one particular story that
the lady wrote me via email is going to stick
with me with just how brutal it is. So I

(14:03):
told her I'd put it out through in general terms
and there you go. Other end of the gamut. Childcare spaces.
Had a call yesterday a lady up in Sa Mary's
Bay trying to open up a regulated healthcare or daycare
or childcare. Pardon me, but apparently the garden of the
Department of Education has run out of money to create

(14:23):
these ten dollars a day childcare spaces and it won't
be replenished until next April. There's got to be away.
If there are folks on the sidelines who are doing
the hard work to put the paperwork in front of
the government to be able to open up a regulated
or nonregulated childcare facility, can we not ensure that this

(14:44):
gets done? Then we hear from the government in a
statement that said fourteen hundred and fifty spaces have been
approved since the beginning of the year and once they're
fully operating, it will help a significant number of parents
and families currently seeking childcare, of course, but we don't
have a current up and how many families are on
the waitlist. We were not told by the new Education Minister,

(15:05):
Paul din last week when he made a statement about
daycare that there were administrative issues and they'd run out
of money. There's always ways for government to try to
figure this out in the short term. We needn't wait
to the next provincial budget to restock or to refuel
the coffers for the childcare spaces. It just does not
need to be that way. But apparently out of money,

(15:27):
ran out of money for something that they talk about
in terms of such importance, and it is important. But
from the federal level and the Canada Wide Early Learning
Agreement and the provincial talk about the importance of creating
more and more childcare spaces. And also what's lost here
is not only do we not have an updated number
on the waitlist. We have the number of new spaces

(15:48):
that have been created, but we have no earthly idea
how many spaces may have been lost. So the net
gain number is always more important than just the big
number of how many have been creative boil boy, we
want to talk about that let's do it how we
do not there, David, Let's get out of today, all right.
So another one, and this is back to the Beta
Nord conversation. So we know that the Premier has approached

(16:11):
the conversation with the Prime Minister and he says it
was well received. It's the job expectations. I wonder where
people's minds are on this one. So we know Equinor
is going to come forward with an expression of the
interest or we're told, But the caveat, like it is
every time in these EOIs, is about cost and schedule
and skills trades. NL are talking about around seventy percent

(16:35):
of the jobs should be done here. We know we
haven't done this kind of top side's work for the
last twenty years. So I just wonder what the expectations
really are on that front. And the federal government of course,
can do very little there. But Premier wakem also talking
with the Feds about an investment tax credit, which could
be attractive obviously to the company who's trying to figure
out their business model. That's whether or not they proceed

(16:57):
at Beta Or. But let's get that on the front
burner as well. All right, up along Ontario Sussein Marie
al Gom Steel employees about twenty seven hundred people. Because
of the move that was already in the works to
move to an electric arc furnace and move away from
the blast furnaces, there were going to be some job
losses into the future, but just yesterday they put one

(17:20):
thousand layoff notices in the hands of their employees, which
is effective. Come March, tough time year to know you're
being laid off. And of course it's the crippling effect
of not only the move to electric arc furnaces, but
for the Trump tariffs on steel and aluminum at the
two and fifty percent, a lot of market share has
been lost. I know the FEDS realize it, with some
supports for these companies and workers last week and the

(17:43):
transportation of steel and what have you. But boyle boy,
I mean, it's just another clear example of real life
implications of this absolutely unnecessary, out of the out of
nowhere tariff based trade war with the United States are
once most reliable partner so again, and I know there's
a story in the news about American booze being hauled

(18:04):
off the shelves, even though that's more optics than anything else.
And plus I'd rather have governments are lifted up to
the individual Canadians, so whether or not they wanted to
buy a Kentucky wind diage versus being told they're not
allowed to see it on the shelf. But if you
want to take it on, we can do it. Oh
and yes, there was a mini cabinet shuffle yesterday on
the federal front. Trudeau erab minister Mark Miller back in cabinet,

(18:26):
which I was told by many that Mark Miller was
going to cross the floor, but I guess not back
in the federal cabinet. Maybe that's why he's back in
the federal cabinet. All right. Last one got a call yesterday, Well,
every time we bring up American politics, you know, I'm told,
what about Canada. Look, we talk about Canada rightfully, so
all the time. And yes, we absolutely have some structural
issues in this country, economically speaking and otherwise, undoubtedly, I'm

(18:51):
absolutely happy to take it on. It's hard to ignore
American politics and full because it has an impact on
day to day life in Canada. It just does, and
including political discourse. And this one is about drugs. Had
a called yesterday from Colin about the Venezuelan apparently or
alleged drug boats being blown out of the water by

(19:12):
repeated American strikes. The death toll is now a summer
in excess of eighty, you know, right, No matter what
you think of the narco trade and the war against now,
the story about the apparent second strike on one Venezuelan
drug boat is back in the news in full force.
When the Washington Post reported it, the Secretary of Defense,

(19:35):
mister Hexith said that it was completely fabricated. What did
he say, fabricated, inflammatory and derogatory. There's no such thing
as that second strike. But hold on the White House
yesterday itself said oh there was, and they're trying to
throw one particular admiral on the bus by the look
at it. Frank Bradley gave the order an authorization from Hexath. So,

(19:56):
no matter what you think about any of this stuff,
or Donald Trump for anybody else, the Americans are signatories
to the Geneva Convention, and so if there's two people
clinging to wreckage in open international waters, they are not
participants in any armed conflict, any war whatsoever. So going
back to blast them out of the water and kill

(20:16):
them at that point is a crime. It doesn't matter
what you think about the Republicans or the Democrats or
anybody else. And concours are so toothless. Is anybody going
to have a little bit more of a careful review,
you know, the oversight, which is their primary job as lawmakers. So, man,
oh man, you can be in full support of blown
up Venezuela and drug boats, even if there's limited information

(20:38):
as to whether or not that they actually are carrying
drugs every single time they're blown up. But going back
for the second strike again, not because I say so,
because the Geneva Convention says so, and the Americans have
signed on too. So if we but man, that story
is not dead yet, that's for sure. That is poor
choice words. We're on Twitter or view sim up line
follows there email address open one offsm dot com. It's

(21:00):
going to break in when we go back. The show
is yours up to you. Don't away. Welcome back to
the show. Let's beget online. Number one on the top
of the board, say get more to the gentleman behind
the Uncle Narleye blog. That's Sullivan's Warren Dez. You're on
the air.

Speaker 3 (21:11):
Good morning, Patty, I hope you've been well.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
I've been well, sir. How about you? Oh, just great, Patty.

Speaker 3 (21:18):
I just thought this morning it might be timely to
follow up on a blog post that I wrote and
posted at the end of November with regard to some
of the challenges facing the new Premier Wakem and perhaps

(21:40):
detailing some of the decisions that he might have made
already and has not have not. Now that's before I
get Before I go there, I should say that I'm
I'm delighted that the Premier Wakem has an opportunity to
lead the government right now. Were pretty darn concerned after

(22:03):
the Turtle Falls MoU was being presented by the Liberal
Party or the Liberal government as a feed a complete
and that it was really just a matter of lawyers
finishing the drafting of terms and there it was going
to be approved. And of course, as you know, and

(22:27):
your show has been featured quite frequently by the critics
of the MoU and an important outlet for discussion of
these kinds of issues in the province, that this MoU
did not serve the province. Well, now, I guess you

(22:52):
could say that Premier Wakem having now the opportunity and
has indicated that he is going to have an independent
review of the Churchill Falls MOUs. That is one thing,
and we look forward to that. But I guess those
of us who look and spend a lot of time

(23:12):
looking critically at public policy and at government decisions worry
that it will not be as vigorous as it might be.
And hence the blog post as it was written with
I would have to admit a fairly aggressive title which
said early warning. Premier wakem can find his spine.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
I read the piece, you know, just a couple of
quick comments. As you know, I think most people will
welcome an independent review quote unquote, but I'm going to
hold off judgment until I know exactly what we're reviewing.
If it's going to be an expanded mandate from the
current panel that's looking at the MoU, if it's going
to be risk assessment, which is not really part of
this current exercise here. And plus, you know, even when

(24:00):
we look at terms of reference to know that we're
going from some sort of big global organization with huge
horsepower and a track record of contracts of this magnitude
to go back to a three person political points of panel,
it feels like what is replicating wat's in place now,
maybe with some expanded scope, but not what I thought
was coming. Well, not what I thought was coming either.

Speaker 3 (24:22):
And this has a couple of facets. And I'm going
to back up just.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
A little bit.

Speaker 3 (24:28):
I would have thought given the seriousness of the EMOU,
I mean this, this is not just your average garden
variety agreement between between two provinces. This is this is
a deal that involves literally tens of billions of dollars
and possibly hundreds of billions. It is the, in my opinion,

(24:51):
the one chance that Newfoundland has to seriously resolve its
debt problem. And if it doesn't use this upper sure
the wisely, then I suggest to you that it's got
serious issues to considered down the road. Now, that's that said.
The given the seriousness and the deficiency of what the negotiation,

(25:15):
what Premier and your Furies team negotiated, uh, then the
new government ought to have elevated it in a different way.
It having having come in and made it a public
policy that it was going to conduct this review, he
should have immediately said the Oversight Committee as it is constituted,

(25:37):
is disbanded. I mean, if anyone doubts that Mike Wilson
wasn't abundantly clear that this committee was poorly constituted, poorly
mandated and wasn't doing its job, well, then you know
what is left to say. But it was certainly Mike
Wilson's appraisal of what he was involved in, which caused

(26:00):
him to resign, suggests that at the outset, Premier wakem
ought to have disbanded that committee. Secondly, this was an
opportunity for the government to send them a direct message
to Quebec that the deal as constituted is not satisfactory.
It should have told the lawyers drafting the agreements for

(26:22):
similar to the MoU to step down. Why are we
spending millions of dollars drafting legal agreements that may have
no effect whatsoever? Because presumably if unless every analyst who
has looked at this outside of Nelford, that is, or
outside of Hydro are wrong, then we have to assume

(26:47):
that what is being drafted superfluous and will be completely redone.
So why are we keeping lawyers employed to draft agreements
that will have no effect later on? These were Those
were two decisions that the government could have immediately taken

(27:09):
saved money rather than cost money, and didn't and that
gives me some serious concern about what its intentions are. Now,
if I might, Patty, I could just say in the
same vein this leads to the nature of the independent

(27:30):
review being constituted because.

Speaker 2 (27:33):
And you're right.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
That we need to know a lot more about what
the government proposes in the context of this three member panel.
Because the phrase that I was looking for in the
Premier wakem statements was that it would be constituted under

(27:55):
the Inquiries Act of Newfouland, the Public Inquiries, which would
allow a panel or whether it's headed by a judge
or someone else, to interview participants in this MoU to
interview them on their oath. That's an absolutely critical part

(28:17):
of this.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
I haven't heard it.

Speaker 3 (28:19):
I am concerned that the panel might not be so constituted.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
The other issue that I don't think it's much attention
here is regardless of these structure, the constitution or the
terms of reference, Hydro Quebec and the Province of Quebec
they don't really owe us anything on this front. We can,
you know, have our own authorities to examine our own
role and here our own risks are you know, who's
going to be the lender, you know, the issue regarding
Quebec's one hundred percent authority at goal. We can examine

(28:46):
those types of things, but even something like what Michael
Saba said replacement costs for hydro Quebec would have been
between twelve and fourteen cents as opposed to the five
point nine cents, we don't even know what that means,
and nor is Michael Saba almost any testimony. So that's
for me. There's you know, an examination, even if it's
as comprehensive as you would like to see or others
would like to see, or Michael wils would like to see.

(29:08):
The fact is our negotiating partner doesn't know us any answers,
which I really I struggle with how we're going to
get to the brass tax when we're only going to
have a brass tack.

Speaker 3 (29:17):
Well, you know, Patty, if we haven't learned since nineteen
sixty nine, since the signing of nineteen sixty nine of
Virgil contract, which is now allowing power to be sold
to Quebec for two tenths of a cent per killer
one hour, if we haven't learned anything about after all

(29:39):
of the attempts we've made for redress after various negotiations
to develop gull after Quebec Hydro's refusal to provide water
management agreement even with respect to the muskrat Falls. Then
if we are not clear yet that Quebec is going

(30:02):
to do nothing to assist the newfo Lands economic prospects,
then we will never learn. We will just never learn.
We we crazy as it sounds. We have one of
the greatest hydro resources in the world. This is a

(30:23):
project at the Upper Churchill producing well over five thousand
mega watts that would that would resolve newfound Lands, I think,
resolve Newfland's economic issues for a very long time. And
we don't seem to recognize that we not Quebec. We

(30:48):
are in possession of this resource and somehow we don't
quite know how.

Speaker 4 (30:54):
To deal with it.

Speaker 3 (30:56):
And you know, Patty, we have a we we need
to learn to deal with it else we will give
it away a second time. And that is the essence
of the current Turtle Falls MoU. And you know, I
often say that small societies have real problems of of

(31:22):
of theft and of talent and so on, but you know,
not in this case, we are not short of capabilities
to understand Turtle Falls, to understand its magnitude, to understand
its potential. And it grieves me really that so many

(31:42):
new Landers are out there today, A lot of them
were public servants, a lot of them in private industry
who understand this process, remain quiet about what Churchill Falls
could do for this province of one half million people.
This is where I think the government really it's got
to show leadership on the MoU yes, but it's got

(32:06):
to show leadership on what the alternatives are in terms
of utilizing this power to newful Lands and benefit in
the long run.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
Appreciate your time, Jess, Thanks for doing it.

Speaker 3 (32:17):
Always good to talk to you, buddy.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
Pleasure, take good care by now bye bye. All right,
let's get a break in, don't go away, welcome back
to the show. Let's go to light number two. Good
morning Sam here on the air.

Speaker 5 (32:29):
Hey Petty, are you doing long time since we spoke?

Speaker 2 (32:31):
Long time? I'm doing fine, Thank you? How about you?

Speaker 5 (32:33):
Oh doing great? Thank you? Wonderful heat do I want
to use your your listed audience to get a word
out through a bit of fundraiser we're doing tomorrow for
the Helping Hands Mary Sound Food Bank. I spoke to
Miss Galton but a month ago and I was going
to give a small donation and we sort we started
chating up, you know, where the food bank has gone
and the increasing demand. It's way over the top. I

(32:55):
think food banks across the country have gone up in
demand some forty two percent. Five. So we're going to
host an event sponsored by the Mary seven Cannet Club.
It's going to be held in the Marytowntown Hall from
four to seven tomorrow. It's going to be a live
stream on the Marytowntown Council Facebook page and people can

(33:16):
call it one number. The number is two seven seven
zero nine two seven nine one six six one and
that will make four or five telephones ring the same time,
So only need to remember one number, two seven nine
one sixty six one. And we're hoping to raise, you know,
some money to help the food bank as it goes
into the into the depths of the Christmas season.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
Good Anya, and you're not wrong. I mean demand is
way up and it comes with the perfect storm. Demand
is up. Donations are seemingly down. Why because cost of
living pressures get to a lot of people who maybe
at this time of year could have made a twenty
dollars donation and maybe it's just not available this year.
So that is the essence of a perfect storm.

Speaker 5 (33:56):
Well, I think what you do. I listen to your preamble.
You know you're talking about the church will deal really
important stuff, you know, the algonquin wine in Ontario, the
whole issue, Like there are some big picture issues out there,
but I guess there are not many more important issues
than being able to feed the family, especially during the
Christmas season. And I can tell you, like when I

(34:17):
spoke to Mss Galden, she was explaining how it's evolved
over the years. Right now the Helping Hands Food Bank
is seeing one hundred and fifty families per month or
for yeah, I think it's per month. But they're now
seeing what she referred to as the working poor people
who were always able to sort of independently keep themselves going,

(34:39):
but now with affordability, food prices of skyrocketed. If you've
renewed your mortgage in the last number of months, you'll
find that your interest rate at two percent, is now
gone to six percent, and your mortgage payment is probably
gone up by fifty or sixty percent. To keep the
same term, it's it has been the perfect storm for people.
You know, thood affordability are of interest rates and impact

(35:00):
you know, mortgages for example. So if there's any way
that we can help Mary Sound. There's a lot of
people of course who live outside of Mary Sound, who
work out west in Ontario and in Alberta in particular,
and there's still a lot of rotational workers here who
might want to take the time tomorrow again between four
and seven to just get there and open up their
iPhone and cell phone and shoot off a small donation

(35:23):
to helping Hands Mary's Sound at hotmail dot com. That
will go a long way to putting a food on
the table for some people who who might not have
food this Christmas season.

Speaker 2 (35:35):
Absolutely, you know, it's a big complicated conversation. You know,
we can talk all go mi steal and the MoU
and pipelines and all the rest, but you're right, these
real life right in front of us issues for everybody,
regardless of your political leanings. We all have to eat.
So it'd be nice to be able to back some
of the political bend to some of these conversations regarding food,
like in this province. You know, when the province's founded

(35:57):
at sixty four thousand hectares for agricultural purpose that's been
slow walked. I don't know how much has been developed there.
You know. For me, if I had any say, of
which I don't is, i'd be carefully considering the seed
money for hydroponic startups everywhere in the province. You know. Proximity,
geographically speaking, is part of the cost of living when
it comes to food pressures and access to healthy foods.

(36:17):
And then it's the concept of trying to put the
genie back in the bottle when prices go up at
the grocery store, man oh man, to pretend they're going
to come down as fast as they went up is
it's simply not happening. So I don't know how we
get back to some sort of more normal fifty bucks
for the groceries and how it barely fits the fills
the bottom of a shopping bag these days, because I

(36:38):
don't know how some people make it. I just don't understand, no.

Speaker 5 (36:41):
And Petty, I don't understand. I don't I try and
do the man in my mind how people are trying
to get by, And I really don't understand helder getting by.
You're obviously better at manishing your food build and are
probably better at cooking than I am for that which
to survive. But it's really in front of you and
healthy food. You're right, these are big picture. It's all
tied together by the way your reference in your preamble

(37:03):
about the ten dollars day childcare that's slow rolling out.
People need ten dollars a day childcare so they can
put twenty dollars a day on the table. In regarding food,
there's so many things that help, for example, the stress
of mental health, stress over affordability or over lack of food,
and even just the general health. If you don't need

(37:25):
recently good food, you don't do well physically. If we
don't well physically, if you don't do well physically, you
end up in the hospital. You end up being an
awful financial strain on the healthcare system. Of course, with
you no fault of your own. So these are all
really big picture items. And I think you know that
Solomon every I think everybody's right in some way that
Solomon was right. You know, we got one chance to
get things right. And I just hope true whatever the

(37:48):
MLU will be eventually, that Quebec will still sign off
on it. They might they might be able to give
us part of that. They're capital of replacement costs of
fourteen cents down the six percent or six cents. But we'll, like,
we got to figure this stuff out because I don't
think people, ordinary people in this plant of Labrador can
get through an under two or three years with inflation

(38:08):
and affordability issues of Reguardian housing and food.

Speaker 2 (38:12):
And the Competition Bureau has told us quite clearly that
some of the impact upwards, impact on the price of
food is about the lack of competition. It's not just
about shelf space. Eighty percent of the food sold in
this country is in the five big retailers. That's problematic.
Beyond shelf space is access to distribution. If I'm the
big player with big contracts, I get to call the
tune with the distributor, I get access, I get the

(38:34):
primary return and the prompt return and fill my orders
before the small medium sizers. Then there's real estate issues
associated with the big grocery change. There's just a lot
to this and last one. Then I'll give you the floor.
It'd be great if we walk back and look at
the biggest price tag items in this country to are

(38:56):
time in prison and time in the hospital, and the
social determinants of health, education and housing in particular. You
get those two right, then you're very likely to cure
a lot of the other ills regarding costs of living,
press and groceries and those types of things. But we
haven't heard carefully crafted policy or legislation to do better there.
People keep saying, you know, I'm sick of this socialism,

(39:16):
and you know people have to use that physically impossible
to put yourself up by your bootstraps because it doesn't work.
Just try to figure it out in your own mind.
If you're worried about how the money is spent, then
to try to keep people out of prison and hospitals
is going to go a long way to freeing up
some of the money that you desperately want spent on
areas that are of concern to you. So we're just
missing the boat here.

Speaker 5 (39:37):
No, I agree, we haven't done. I followed these issues
very closely for yourself as chairperson in the new Atlanta
leverat or Housing and Homeless Network, and I've gone to
different jurisdictions looking at the housing file. Again, we're off,
way off topic now for concerning the food bank. But
I think Vienna, for example, the city at Vienna has
probably been the leader in housing a building to create

(40:01):
build hundreds of thousands of units that are modern. They're infilling,
drawing that in one neighborhood on top of each other,
so there are models later we can do things with.
But again getting back to my point, I don't think
people are going to be able to get true life
as we know it, facing the affordability issues with healthing
and food in particular, you need to make a lot

(40:21):
of money to be able to pay rent, to pay
a mortgage, and to buy food. You have no money
left over for anything else.

Speaker 2 (40:27):
No, and I'll just add this to people's want to
Google up. You said Vienna, I'll throw Helsinki in there
if you just go to your Google buyer after this program,
put in Helsinki housing first and read how they virtually
eradicated homelessness in Helsinki. It's a fascinating case study. But
we're afraid to adopt it in this country because someone
will throw in ism on it. They'll just referred to

(40:48):
it as socialism versus what it means for interaction with
the criminal justice system. The emergency rooms hospital admittance. So
just give Google a goal with Helsinki Housing first. It's
a really great read and the results speak for themselves. Sam,
good luck with the food bank fundraiser, Patty.

Speaker 5 (41:05):
But it doesn't go a hit tomorrow, for we give
you a quick ring back to say it's not going
to hit because we're getting a bit of a storm.
But we're trying to work. We're trying to work our
based around the storm.

Speaker 2 (41:12):
Sounds good to me.

Speaker 5 (41:14):
Oh, you take care of something.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
Talking again you so bye bye, yeah again. You can
just look at all the demonstrably accurate data out there
about if you get it right in education and you
get it right in housing, a lot of the big
ills they fall into the category of not so ill
any longer. Let's get a break and don't go away.
Welcome back to the program. Let's go to lineum with

(41:35):
three segment to the ward Force councilor here in Town's Tom,
David's Tom. You're on the air. Good morning, Patty, why
don't you.

Speaker 6 (41:42):
I'm going to start with the big snow. Hopefully tomorrow
is not as much as as as it's forecasted for
some people, but we're going to see how it goes
and just caution residents to, you know, make sure the
snow tires around and if they're not on, to maybe
stay off the roads. Just for everybody's sake.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
I wish I could stay off the road A quick
question as a counselor we know the parking ban for
the no parking routes are already placed twenty four seven
January third for the rest of the city. The problem
that I think many people have is a zero discretion.
If the ban is on and there's not a flake
of snow or a bit of ice anywhere in the
forecast around the ground, you still get a ticket. Is
that fair?

Speaker 6 (42:22):
You know a lot of It's one of these things
that when you get elected to go in there thinking okay,
well this doesn't make any sense, and I agree to
the rational Saint John's resident doesn't make any sense. The
challenge is that it is amazing when you get in
there and you realize how disconnected a lot of residents are.
And this is the problem is you're trying to have
a system that works for everybody when a very high

(42:44):
percentage of the population doesn't pay attention. They don't have
whether they have the app or not. And although we
encourage people, and I'll encourage people now to download the
City of Saint John's app so that you get updates.
I say, you know, can't we work towards having our
residents pay attention, so turn things like that on and off.
I would also include being able to put your garbage
cans out the night before as another thing that people

(43:07):
should be able to do, except for when it's too
windy or when the forecast is uncertain. But what we found,
and you know, staff keep reminding me when of I
bring it up in a related areas that people aren't
paying attention. For example, you'd be amazed how many residents
the City of Saint John's didn't vote, even though obviously
seventy percent never voted, even though they you know, in
a lot of cases, had it delivered to their door.

(43:29):
So it's just one of these things where I would
really love to see people more engaged so that we
could have so we could turn things on and off.
So then the next question is why give a ticket
if there's no snow like you've experienced before? And I
can make an argument that we probably shouldn't give a ticket,
but then staff will come back and say, well, if
we don't. If we don't teach people a lesson when

(43:52):
it's not snowing, it's too late when you're in the
middle of a snowstorm. It's really it really comes back to,
in my opinion, the fact that the many residents of
the city are either too busy, too distracted, and they
just they just don't pay attention to the rules. And
sometimes the only way to teach people, and this is
the same thing with driving distracted or whatever else, is
to actually hit him in the pocketbook. And it's disappointing,

(44:15):
and I'd love for love to be proven wrong, but
it just seems like that's a staff keep coming back
at me with when I make these proposals.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
Yeah, I mean, I get the rationale, but at some
point it also feels like school marm stuff. You know,
if we're going to try to teach people a lesson
and you get the one warning ticket, even if it
was that no snow no ice warning ticket, next time around,
absolute ticket, because there's a database and he's the cover
who's been receiving a warning versus a ticket or what

(44:43):
have you. And if someone willfully parks out in the
road and it happens the second time when there's snow
in the forecast, told the bloody car, right, I mean,
there are ways to make the point with me not
getting a ticket because I fell asleep on the couch,
I put my vehicle in the driveway at one o'clock.

Speaker 6 (44:57):
Yeah. You know. The other thing is we actually don't
have a lot enforcement people relatively speaking, so you know,
a lot of times it also comes down to resources too.
But you know, again it's a conversation. I think if
residents feel strongly about it, they need to reach out
to us and we I mean, I'll bring that up,
and I know there's lots of other counselors will bring
it up and we can have that discussion again. But

(45:18):
I think residents just need to look around and realize
how disconnected unfortunately so many of our fellow residents are.

Speaker 7 (45:24):
Ye.

Speaker 2 (45:25):
Fair enough, all right, you want to talk about the
budget for a bit before we get to the news.

Speaker 6 (45:29):
Yeah, I do. So, you know, we're in this situation
and I've been doing a lot of analysis, and you know,
we've got a lot of new counselors down down at
City Hall. And you know, as you pointed out, before
I got elected, I was all about the spending at
the city and right now, I want to focus on
the reality and the information that's coming into me, and

(45:51):
I know it's coming to my fellow counselors. I know
they all care and they're all conflicted. But we're going
through a budget process. We got to have a budget
by the end of the year, and which basically means
by the middle of the months. You know, council wants
to have voted on a budget. So these are the
types of things that I want my fellow counselors to
have in mind, but also the residents because the other
challenge that we're faced with is nobody wants to lose services.

(46:11):
Everybody wants more and a lot of people are doing
fine financially, and so it's difficult when you're trying to
make a budget that makes everybody happy. You can't do it,
including your employees. So Right Bridges a Hope came out
and they record an increase in their annual Meraicle on
Cookstown Road Christmas campaign of seventy two percent more people.
So last year there was eleven hundred people registered. This
year it's nineteen hundred people. And Homelessness just came out

(46:33):
and reported that there's four hundred and seventy five homeless
people in Saint John's. The last three years, it's tripled.
You were talking about the adult bankruptcy on Friday, it's
about fifty two percent. Since twenty twenty, one hundred and
thirty seven thousand Canadians declare bankruptcy. CFIV just came out
And a lot of people don't realize. But the business people, businesses,

(46:54):
and I'm one of them. We pay twice the property
tax of the resident based on the value of the
building that we acker by, and you know, whether you
rent or you own, it's still getting passed down to you.
And you know, businesses are struggling, and so you know
that's a challenge too. And so when the taxes go
up for the residents, they go up twice as much. Potentially,
it's more complicated that because because you've got to praise

(47:15):
value of buildings too, but technically they go up twice
as much for the for the businesses. So so I
really think we need to be taking a different tack
down at the city. You know, this is probably my
third or fourth week saying this, but we you know,
we've yes, we're getting a few emails from residents, but again,
this is this disconnected. You know, I know that a
lot of the people who are really being hurt by

(47:36):
these tax increases, for one reason or other, they're too proud,
or they're they're they've they've got other challenges, bigger challenges
the sitting and writing an email or calling their their counselor.
And so I often I say that constantly too. You
know that we're not hearing from the people we need
to hear from for one reason or another, and so
we have to realize that they're out there. And these
statistics drive that home. But one really maddening statistic for me,

(48:01):
which I've dug out, is that since twenty twenty three,
if this city council goes ahead with and goes ahead
with this proposed eight percent on average rays Texas since
twenty twenty three will have gone up eighteen pointy eight
percent for the residents of the city of Saint John's.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
Don't I know it?

Speaker 6 (48:20):
Well, you know, I don't know if a lot of
people do know that. Like I didn't know it. I
knew it had gone out night, and but I don't
even think even council knew it. So again, when we're
looking at the budget, there's all these things. We've got
the new news centers all you know, it's really difficult
snow clearing and you know, all this stuff and the
only way and the city is well managed, and I

(48:40):
will you know, people don't realize this, but it's you know,
I've looked at the provincial way they run themselves and
the FEDS. City Saint John's has incredible employees. We have
a continuous improvement program. The senior managers do care about
the budget and they watch it and so you know,
it's a great culture down there. However, the only way
we reverse this trend is to change tact and I

(49:03):
do need the residence to hear what I'm saying. And
part of the reversing the track would be the loss
of some services, so you know, and reduction in some services,
and also potentially other compromises and sacrifices. But you know,
these are my my my outer thoughts. But I will
tell you that we're you know, we're knee deep into
this or neck deep into these budget discussions. And if

(49:25):
residents have strong feelings, they need to express them strongly,
because that's how counsel makes decisions based upon the wants
and needs of its.

Speaker 2 (49:33):
Residents understood, Tom, I'll make for the news that I
appreciate the time. Take care of one you too, By bye,
Tom Davis is the word force councilor here in town
all right today? It might be a good one for
you if you're in and around town. Seven zero nine
two seven three five two one one elsewhere toll free
long distance one a day eight five ninety vocm, which
is eighty six twenty six. We're taking a break and
then we're coming back and welcome back to the show.

(49:57):
Been asked a couple of maybe they're sitting down listening
to show together, but I got an email back to back.
I assume they're from Fish Harvester's or Fish Harveser's family
about if I have any updated information about the crab
dispute and the rebate moneies that are currently going to
some sort of expedited arbitration. Short answers, No, I don't
really know what's going on there, and I suppose hopefully

(50:19):
a union rep can fill in the blanks. But they
also asked an important question based on a news story
that we've talked about here on the show. It's about
sea urchins. Not a huge industry, but it is an
industry that employs people. And so we asked to one street,
the president at the FAAW about the sea urchin issue,
because it's about a hotter's shellfish company. They had a

(50:40):
poor year, poor harvest, but they pointed out that there's
plenty of barriers and so there's only fifty two licenses
for sea urchins in the province, but I believe only
thirteen landed any sea urchins last year. So the question
was being asked by folks at hotters as to whether
or not they'll be able to expand and get a
temporary license to be able to harvest sea urchins and
the seventy five percent of the coastal area that does

(51:02):
not have an active license. It's a good question. Now
I see a headline that says that the FAAW is
opposed to it, and they asked me why. I don't
really know, but that's an answer that we can't get
on your behalf. No problem there. Then I think, what
has not been given a whole lot of attention, but
it'll soon rear its head when we go back to
next year's crab season snow crab season is the processing

(51:25):
capacity question. So it was a problem last year we
had plenty of fish sharps as saying that they've already
exhausted their crab. Now they're going at the cod, but
they can't get a buyer. Why because the processing plants
were still working on crab. So now when you know
that Saint Mary's fish plant has burnt to the ground,
has been absolutely destroyed, that issue is going to get

(51:46):
even more complicated. You know. Inside that whole world of
processing and processing capacity. We were told last year that
there's a plan to expand. What that looks like, whether
it be smaller licenses or what have you, we don't know.
But time is of the essay, especially with that, say
Mary's plant gone, so we can add that into the conversation.
Pleasure here Penny of the people who chime in about

(52:07):
the processing sector, talking about the foreign ownership and the
concentration of the big players. It's not that long ago
when Royal Greenland was given the green light by Quincy's
Operations that it was noted by then the chair of
the processing panel whose redge ansity the late redgi Ansity.
He was clear they gave it a recommended approval, but

(52:28):
the final approval comes from the Minister responsible and at
the time it was Elvis Loveless the question, but then
as posed by mister Antsy, and that panel was to
have a further examination to understand the percentage of foreign
ownership and what that might look like into the future.
So I don't think that's gone by the wayside. But
that being said, I'm not so sure how much intention

(52:49):
has been given to it as well, because I haven't
heard much about that since necessarily so, so anyway, there
you go. Also, people ask why we continue I guess
I continue to talk about the social terminents of health. Well,
I think if we look at the work that's been
done in the creation of the ten year Roadmap for
healthcare the Healthy Court, that was pretty clear about what

(53:09):
the important factors are in talking about the amount of
money spent in healthcare, the number of people interacting with
the healthcare system, and the fact that we just react
once you're sick as opposed to try to do more
to keep you well and keep you out of the hospital.
So there's a lot of things included in the social
determinants of health. Because even that story last week or
the week before that said that there were some five

(53:30):
hundred thousand Canadians left in emergency room without seeing a doctor,
you know, because they just got sick of waiting. They
clearly said in that examination that two social determinants were
key factors in that particular story was education and housing. Again,
just to point out the obvious regarding housing, the housing
crunch across the country is extremely real. It's dire in

(53:53):
many parts of the country. And whether or not it
be the modular homes that are the tiny homes or whatever,
it's just the number of units that need to be
The reports coming from the Toronto University Hospital painted a
pretty clear picture. They examined one thousand admissions, five hundred
were chronically homeless, five hundred were housed. Those who are
homeless spend twice as long as the hospital consequently cost

(54:14):
twice as much. If you break that down into exactly
the length of stay and the factor that people were homeless,
that money to be refunneled into housing and quick approvals
at the municipal level and different levels of government and
their financial support for we could probably do a lot
better with the amount of money that we spend. So

(54:35):
I don't know if people get tired of hearing about
those root cause issues but as opposed to what we
do all the time is we react at the eleventh hour. Consequently,
that's too late to try to address one issue or another.
And when we talk about healthcare in particular, just read
the report itself as it pertains those social determinans who
you are, man or woman, whether or not you're living

(54:57):
in poverty or they're working poor. And yes, education and
yes housing, Yes substance abuse, and yes mental health related matters.
But those are the areas where you need the carefully
crafted public policy. They try to keep people out of
the hospital, out of the emergency rooms, and yes, you're
one hundred percent right when you talk about the numbers
of people floating into the emergency room because they don't

(55:19):
have access to primary care is an obvious reason. You know,
just think about how many people might be sitting in
that waiting room who actually have an emergency versus someone
who's sitting there because they don't have access to a
doctor or a nurse practitioner or they're not hooked up
with one of these collaborative care clinics. Of course, that
drives the numbers up, because when people feel like they

(55:39):
need to see a doctor, even if it's not an
actual emergency. They're going to do what they got to
do now. The virtual offering, I think can be helpful
for some people with some ills or ailments, but it's
not to be all and end all, you know. Some
of that's just based in the way we think about
access to healthcare. People want to be face to face
with a healthcare practitioner, whether it be a licensed practice

(56:00):
nurse or a nurse practitioner or a family doctor. But
for many things that could be dealt with virtually. It's
a mindset. People want to see that white coat. People
want to be in your office or in your clinic
versus even in the comfort of their own home, using
whether it be medicuro or any other virtual platform, which
could absolutely be pretty helpful in trying to clear up

(56:22):
the backlogs at the emergency rooms and the wait times
and or the way sometimes excruciatingly long wait on patient
connect before you actually get assigned a doctor or a clinic,
and hopefully that'll be close by where you live. All right,
let's get a break in here. When we come back,
the topic is entirely up to you. Don't go away,
welcome back. Let's go to line number one. Ross you're
on the air. No, Ralph, Ralph, pardon me, sir, welcome

(56:45):
to the show. You're on the air.

Speaker 4 (56:47):
Yeah, thank you for having me. No, I us. I
got a short concern. By the thing is, I've been
looking for my brother now my services, the family for
the past couple of months. He's not replying to nobody.
We don't know where he's doing in the city.

Speaker 2 (56:59):
He is here.

Speaker 4 (57:00):
I heard him as a couple of problems in at him.
We're just wandered him. If he can call your station living,
you know, if he's okay. If anybody knows Scotty well,
he mentioned to him that were calm, unconcerned abou him.

Speaker 2 (57:13):
That's all Ralph. What Scott's last name or Scotty's last name?
White Way, Scotty white Way. If you're yeah, if you're
out there listening, the family's worried about you. If you
could check in with them, or just simply check in
with us and we can relay the information on. We'd
be happy to help if at all possible. Ralph, So,
why do you think is going on here?

Speaker 4 (57:36):
I don't know he's the last time my son was
about three months ago. And and you don't be in
touch with the family or nothing like that around out
and want to make a big deal. But then again,
I'm not sure worries to just can do. Concerned about
him O his lifestyle is going right. I don't know
what to say, but I'd just like to reach out
to him and then see what's on to go and

(57:56):
have the conversation was on, But he's not touching out
to nobody.

Speaker 2 (58:00):
Do you know if he uses Is he a homeless
person by chance?

Speaker 4 (58:05):
I'm not sure anymore. He wasn't up to a couple
of months ago, but he did say that he did
work for another partner or whatnot. So but he never
did get back to me. I don't know how he
made out if he got another spot. I heard he
was spider at the gathered place at one time, so
my sister did go up there and had to look around.
She didn't see him, and that was only a couple

(58:27):
of days ago.

Speaker 2 (58:29):
You know, it's scary, So look, will we'll be happy
enough to pass the information around. We can put the
plea out here on the radio, so Scotty white Way,
if you or someone who knows Scotty has listening to
the program this morning. The family just wants to know
how you're doing. So if you could check check in
with them or checking with us and if they if

(58:50):
Scotty does that, I'll be more than happy to give
you a call back. Ralph. Let you know what I
find out.

Speaker 4 (58:55):
Yeah, I appreciate it, Matt, but you got my phone
numbering that right?

Speaker 2 (58:58):
We got it? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (59:00):
Yeah, okay, thanks so much, but you have a great.

Speaker 2 (59:02):
Thanks bell, appreciate it. Bye bye. Disconcerting to say the
very least, when there's you know, in this case, Ralph's brother, Scotty,
where are you. Hopefully someone listening to the program know
Scotty and can help us figure it out. And we're
not trying to you know, pinpoint an exact location. If
Scotty doesn't want to see somebody for one reason or another,
I can respect that. But the family just needs and

(59:24):
all you're doing, let's keep going. Line number two caller,
you're on the air. Good morning, Good morning to you.

Speaker 8 (59:32):
Okay, I just wasn't sure what listening or not. I
don't know if you remember me or not.

Speaker 9 (59:36):
I called in a couple of times now that the
sea urchin plants uh and not being able to get
the bays open up, that we need to get into Okay,
So just wondering. You said that you requested an answer
from dufol Did you ever get the answer.

Speaker 2 (59:54):
No, Mum's the word, not a people.

Speaker 8 (59:58):
No, I think we did.

Speaker 9 (01:00:00):
I think we got the answer. It's got to do
it well. First of all, they said they went with
the majority, and so not the ones invested in the industry.
That's not the majority. Not the plant workers, those people
that have been working in this for years.

Speaker 8 (01:00:18):
That's not who they went with. They apparently it.

Speaker 9 (01:00:21):
Was the union.

Speaker 8 (01:00:23):
Now the union.

Speaker 9 (01:00:24):
Members, some of the union members, if not the actual
union member, but some of those union members, they have
licenses I can say, some cold somewhere and so you know,
they've probably got another license in their voice name, and
they got a license in their son's name, and so

(01:00:46):
on and so forth.

Speaker 8 (01:00:48):
Some of those are the ones that are holding those licenses.

Speaker 9 (01:00:52):
Apparently they're just waiting for someone to come along and
buy their license, right that was given to them in
the first place.

Speaker 8 (01:01:02):
So those are the this is what it was based on.

Speaker 9 (01:01:04):
The union went against it, So I mean, they're not
concerned about the people losing.

Speaker 8 (01:01:11):
Their job or anything like that. You know, it's just
pure greed. That's what happened here.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
Yeah, I mean the comment that I made was the
headline says, the FFAW opposes temporary sea urchin licenses, looking
to other solutions. Number one, I'm not entirely sure why
they oppose it. You could be right with your assertion here,
but if you talk about other solutions other than having
access to more sea urches, I don't know what a
solution looks like.

Speaker 8 (01:01:37):
Well, that's it. I mean, you know, we are being blocked, right, Those.

Speaker 9 (01:01:41):
People that have invested a lot of money into this
industry are being blocked for getting into Like even if
even if they were offered an exploratory permit to go
into those days. I mean, they could find enough sea
urchins maybe to keep the plant open for another twenty years.

(01:02:03):
You know that's because they've been right now, we've been
fishing the same three days like for twenty years now.
And I mean, so DFO should be worried about conservation,
right they didn't. It was all the union stopped it
because they want to hold out until they can get
a decent price for this license that was given to

(01:02:24):
them in the first place, like they should. This should
be if you don't fish it, you should lose it simple?
Is that not old everyone else ostage and shut our
plant down. We're losing at least now ten weeks work
a year because of this.

Speaker 8 (01:02:44):
And the day and age that we're living in. You
know what the prices.

Speaker 9 (01:02:48):
I mean, everybody that calls into olpen line. Most all
the complaints had to do with some government bureaucracy. Most
every thing that I listened to, there's something in government
that they're not doing right that's causing all those issues
that people are having. And this is something that with

(01:03:09):
the stroke of a pen could be solved. That's not
irking anyone. There's no one out there can call you
in and tell you that. Well, if they did this
in my day, I would lose money or I would
lose a job. There's no one out there. So anyway,
another issue here which is really bad. And I hate

(01:03:30):
to say this because I voted for this politician and
I probably have the vote for them again because there's
no one else. But we ask them, why haven't you
called in or why haven't you made an issue of this?
Why aren't you saying anything? Because he said, and I mean,
it's terrible, but this is the way it is. I

(01:03:53):
don't want to go against the union because the union
supported me. So to me, that's being bought and paid for.
It's like me running here, say somewhere, say I run
in Badavistabay to serve the people. And I get like, oh, well,
I'm doing really well, and there's some industry or organization

(01:04:14):
out there. Well, she's doing really well, like she's going
to win. We better get her on our side for
when she gets seen, you know, like we can she
can make decisions on our bf regardless if it's good for.

Speaker 8 (01:04:26):
The people or not.

Speaker 9 (01:04:27):
And I say, oh, yeah, well that's good, yeah, because
you know, like they'll support me guaranteed, I'm going to
get in if they support me.

Speaker 8 (01:04:35):
You know, That's that's how it's run. I can't believe it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:41):
Yeah, there's something we said for the active license though, too.
And I don't know how many seasons you'd have to
be inactive before people look at your license and whether
or not you should maintain ownership of And I don't
really know exactly how that works, but I think I
had the accurate numbers because it was just off the
top of my head. I think there's fifty two serre
licenses in the province. Are on the island anyway, and

(01:05:02):
only some thirteen landed to sea urchins last year, which
does beg the question as to why the other licenses
are not active. And I'm sure there's not just one reason,
but I'd like to know.

Speaker 8 (01:05:10):
It's greed, pure greed. That's it.

Speaker 9 (01:05:15):
There's no other reason, and there's no and DFL is
just you know, best corruption as well.

Speaker 8 (01:05:24):
It's all corruption. There's no other reason.

Speaker 9 (01:05:28):
Those the people on DFL, they're like, they've probably got
friends at all those licenses and they're not going to
go against them. And the Union is the union for
the stop to it.

Speaker 8 (01:05:39):
So there you have it.

Speaker 9 (01:05:40):
That's the reason we've been batting this back and forth
now for weeks and you didn't get an answer.

Speaker 2 (01:05:49):
No, I'm not surprised I can't generally get answers from
the Union because you know exactly why they opposed the
temporary licenses for sea urchins, and even just more of
a an elaboration on looking for other solutions. I'm not
sure so sure what that means, but we're happy to
get someone Jamie Baker or whoever on the show if
they have some further clarification or elaboration. We're happy to

(01:06:12):
get it right here on the program for you.

Speaker 8 (01:06:15):
Okay, well, thank you.

Speaker 9 (01:06:16):
And by the way, that politician that I wasn't speaking
to him personally, but someone that I know did.

Speaker 8 (01:06:24):
Ask them the question, and that was Clifford Small.

Speaker 9 (01:06:27):
And he's someone that we supported and voted for and
me probably have two again butt and paid.

Speaker 7 (01:06:33):
For a boy the union.

Speaker 8 (01:06:34):
As far as I'm concerned.

Speaker 2 (01:06:37):
I appreciate your time. Thanks for calling.

Speaker 9 (01:06:39):
All right, you're welcome, Okay, bye, byee.

Speaker 2 (01:06:42):
And someone that asked me why I glossed over the
federal cabinet shuffle yesterday, I'm not so sure if that's
what I did, but there really wasn't much to it,
all of the roles that were held by Stephen Giebo,
who quit cabinet over basically the MoU of broad Strokes
regarding a Alberta pipeline to BC's north coast. That's why

(01:07:02):
Gibo left. But anyway, here's more on it if you're
so inclined to be curious. Mark Miller Trudeau, ara former
cabinet minister, was not in Corney's cabinet when he first
took office. Is the new Minister Canadian Identity and Culture
as well as official Languages, Public Works and Procurement Minister
Joel Lightbound given the additional role which is important politically
speaking as the Quebec lift tenant, which is also an

(01:07:25):
interesting way to put it. And the Minister of Environment
Climate Change is Julie Debrusian has added parks and nature
to her file. That's the extent of it period. Now
under a Trudeau, Mark Miller was in charge of immigration
and lots of questions still coming in about the population

(01:07:46):
growth and the pace with which the population grew and
the impact it's had on access to housing and healthcare
and the rest of it. It's a fair conversation. We
can have it if your own client. I'll put this
back out there because historically speaking, when governments change hand
and the new government comes in, people will have very
quick reactions to the size of the cabinet and make
maybe the makeup of the cabinet. But in this case,

(01:08:08):
Tony wakem as the premier. His first cabinet features fourteen
cabinet ministers and that's down from seventeen when John Hogan
was the premier and the Liberals were at the helm.
So the conversation there, and I don't know why people
get mad at this, but it's just a plain question.
So the savings there translate to about one hundred thousand
dollars a year, and if it remains at fourteen for

(01:08:28):
the four year term for the PCs, it's the savings
of four hundred thousand dollars. That's not insignificant amount of money.
But I think we always should be also asking the
question about the amount of workload for any particular minister,
even though yes, I know the nameless, faceless senior bureaucrats
that have a lot of the information and a lot

(01:08:49):
of the authority for decision making, what have you. Even
though the buck does stop on the minister's desk, is
there a possibility for some ministerial portfolios to be a
little bit too top head for an actual not only
execution of the responsibilities, but a wide understood and understanding
part of me of all the different moving parts inside

(01:09:10):
of one portfolio. So yes, saving some one hundred thousand
dollars a year is one thing. It's also in relation
to an eleven billion dollar budget. Your thoughts on that
or anything else under the sun, you can share them
right after this. Don't away, welcome back to the show.
Just ask the question that is impossible for me to answer,
and it's basically why there were no charges laid in

(01:09:31):
the investigation of missing narcotics at the Janeway. I don't
know as to whether or not they had enough evidence
to satisfy and arrest and or to actually see someone
successfully prosecuted. I really don't know, but it's a fair question.
When you talk about the numbers of people who actually
have access to these locked drug cabinets, you would hope
that would be a pretty small number. And in so

(01:09:53):
far as surveillance goes, I know there's lots of privacy
concerns inside a hospital and the use of cameras, but
in a pretty she altered area of the hospital where
the pharmacists would work, you have to believe there'll be
a way to enhance surveillance. By the use of a camera,
you'd know exactly who had access to the drugs and
whether or not there's any real distinct oversight or monitoring

(01:10:15):
of I guess you signed the drugs out. I assume
if you take them out of the cabinet, So it's
a good question. I really don't know. But New Filanda,
Labrador has the highest rates of drug losses from pharmacies
in the country. It's an amazing stat. Here's just to
add some further numbers to it, and this is through
a access to information request put forward by the SEED

(01:10:36):
and the number of reporter controlled drug losses had health
facilities across New finlanda Labrador from two thousand, twenty twenty
to mid August of this year, there's been at least
ninety eight instances of missing medication, though in some cases
multiple medications were reported missing on the same data in
the same facility, so ninety eight might be a number

(01:10:57):
that's slightly bigger than the actual number of instances, but
that is a pretty big number of matter high slates.
So let's back to eighty. If it was eighty, that's
a lot of people responsible for stealing who knows how
much in the way of narcotics from a hospital setting
or a long term care facility setting. So that is
a pretty big contribution to what inevitably maybe it's feeling

(01:11:20):
the addiction by whoever works from the healthcare system who
stole the drugs, or as likely or even more likely
that they're just selling them on the street. So I
really hadn't considered a whole lot about the amount of
drugs that goes missing from pharmacies. Now, it's one thing
if you go to a standalone pharmacy and it's a
arm robbery or something, but stealing it from a health

(01:11:41):
care facility is a pretty big conversation. In addition to that,
they mentioned long term care settings, and it also be
nice to know and I get it that the government
is relatively brand new in this province at this moment
in time, but when they were in the opposition, they
were quick to jump on some of the Auditor General reports,
including long term care and person care, so they understood

(01:12:02):
the issue. Then you got plenty of public discussion. The
Auditor General was on all the media outlets, including this one,
for painting a clear picture of the shortcomings inside personal
care homes. And you know, I know that the Personal
Care Home Association acknowledges that they'd like to see compliance
issues publicly disclosed. It'd be better for them. And yes,
there are plenty of good care homes and plenty of

(01:12:23):
good people working in the care system, but you're also
talking about somewhere between about five thousand and six thousand
relatively vulnerable people who are living in these facilities. So
when we know that the reports of improperly administered medicine
different levels of abuse from verbal to sexual to emotional.
The report was blistering, so we know the operational standards

(01:12:45):
have not been updated since two thousand and seven, although
we're told that somewhere in Confederation building on somebody's desk
is a draft of an operational update that dates back
to like twenty twenty two, But where is it? And
I get it. It's reasonable and rational to let government
find their footing and get down with the people's business.

(01:13:07):
But things like this are not as they're no more
complicated than what the Order of General pointed out when
delivering this particular or those particular reports, So it'd be
nice to know where they are. Like some things can
happen right away. Public disclosure of compliance issues is important
not only for the general public but for the care
home operators because when people here non compliant, that might

(01:13:28):
bring their mind to things that are very serious, very severe,
when non compliance could be something as fundamental as a
loose doorknob. So I think it's good for the industry
if these things are publicly disclosed, and government could pay
attention to that in very short order. No doubt about it,
and so then the concerned members of the general public

(01:13:48):
could go to a website see what homes have compliance issues,
and then be able to track how quickly they pay
attention and they solve whatever compliance issue, because it can
be innocuous, but it could be very, very serious. And remember,
in the area of improperly administered medication, someone died, so
it's you know, people can tell me it's not that serious,

(01:14:10):
but the fact of the matter is somebody died. One
resident was given an accidental overdose or died from an
accidental overdose because the staff, some staff or a staffer
gave them multiple medications that were meant for another resident.
So it's not like it's not an actual big problem.
They also talked about the numbers of medication incidents. In
a three month period, there were forty one drugs that

(01:14:32):
were missing Neil's being left out on an insulent pain
and of course they're supposed to be single use. So
those reports, when the opposition members understood them and tried
to hold government's feet to the fire on that front,
it'd be nice to know where they are in the
implementation of the recommendations, where we know what happens here
the AG does the important work, then the government of

(01:14:53):
the day will say we accept and understand the other
general's concerns and associated recommendations that will indeed implement them,
even though we know more often than not that doesn't happen.
There was actually an ot Ator General's report just last
year or early this year that look back at a
five year window about just how so many recommendations that
were made and government said they'd implement, but looking back,

(01:15:15):
so many of them, a significant percentage got no traction
somewhere in the throes of being implemented and policy crafted,
but so many of them simply do not get at
ten to two by governments. And it's not good enough
the AG, regardless of who were talking about Terry Padden
or Denise Hand or Hand or anybody else, when they
do the work, the hard work, and they perform of

(01:15:37):
these performance audits, it would be really nice to know
where this current government is on those two areas, because
we're talking about thousands of people who are absolutely living
in fairly vulnerable situations, right, so it'd be nice to
get that. And inside that report there was some ten recommendations.
What's problematic there is if you look back ten years

(01:15:57):
ago to twenty fifteen. Many of those mendations we're also
in the twenty fifteen report. So anyway, you want to
take it on, and we can do it. And someone
asks why and what prompted to bring up the elder
abuse conversation today? Basically it was prompted by this one
very sad, serious story shared by an emailer overnight which
led me down the path. And the most important part

(01:16:19):
of this is, well, I guess there's a lot of
important parts. Is why it happens and who are the perpetrators?
And it's far too common for someone who's willing to physically, psychologically, emotionally, sexually,
financially abused elders in their realm are maybe parts of
their own family. It's remarkable to be able to even

(01:16:40):
think and say that out loud, but it's the demonstrable
truth regarding the prevalence of and we don't have a
clear grasp on the prevalence because a lot of families
who have been involved in these types of stories, they're
not coming forward, they're not reporting it, whether it be
to the police or any other entity. But yeah, it happens,
and so the I was gonna say advice. It's just

(01:17:03):
pay careful attention to some of the elders in your realm,
whether it be family or distant family, or in your
social circles, and look for some warning signs, and maybe
don't be afraid to engage in a mature and not
too pry in anybody's personal business. But if we think
that someone might be in trouble in one of these
areas of abuse, be great if people can get in

(01:17:25):
there and be their support and try to make sure
that we protect them from any of those forms, because
that could be devastating to the individual and of course
devastating to the family. Let's get break it. When we
come back, Rose wants to talk about insurance. Don't go away.
Welcome back to the show. Let's go to line number one. Rose,
You're on the air.

Speaker 10 (01:17:42):
Good morning, Good morning more.

Speaker 2 (01:17:44):
I'm doing okay, thank you? How about you?

Speaker 10 (01:17:47):
Or that's too bad? I rate seve my insurance yesterday.
It's got my house to insurance. It's gone out by
seven hundred and two dollars. Is that normal?

Speaker 2 (01:18:08):
It's a tough question to answer. So did you have
to file any sort of claim regarding your home last year?

Speaker 10 (01:18:15):
I've been with this company for twenty five years claim free.

Speaker 2 (01:18:24):
That's a huge increase. So went up seven hundred and
two dollars, which means how much does it cost now annually?

Speaker 10 (01:18:33):
I don't know, Like I pay it out monthly, right,
and the difference is seven hundred dollars more than it
was last year.

Speaker 2 (01:18:48):
I wouldn't be able to explain it, even though I
know we're all in this one big actuarial pool. So
even like the same thing with your drivers, ince your
vehicle insurance is you could have claim free and until
premiums go up because of other bad drivers and their
claims that need to be adjudicated by insurance companies. Very
similar thing happens when we talk about our homes, and

(01:19:09):
it doesn't seem fair. If I haven't filed the claim,
it's hard to see a justification for an increase to
that extent of my premium. So I don't know. Have
you called your insurance company to.

Speaker 10 (01:19:19):
Ask they're not open today?

Speaker 2 (01:19:24):
Oh that's convenient, Yeah, but that is enough to go
up business, Yes, ma'am, it is no question.

Speaker 10 (01:19:39):
It's very unfair. Like you know, I'm a retired person,
and I mean if that curs up every year, that
much you won't be able to afford insurance.

Speaker 2 (01:19:55):
Absolutely, has your insurance gone up like in the recent
years as well? No, no, I wish I had an
explanation for you, But what I will say is I
agree with you one hundred percent that it certainly feels
like a pretty significant increase.

Speaker 10 (01:20:15):
Yes, okay, Then I just want to know I was
ex sense of the amount I think it is.

Speaker 2 (01:20:26):
It absolutely feels like an excessive amount. I haven't seen
that type of increase on my home policy. But if
others have and they want to chime in, especially if
you've gotten that sort of increase and you've spoken to
your insurance company, it'd be helpful if they came on
to just tell us what their experience is. But you're right, Rose,
it feels like a pretty significant increase in premiums.

Speaker 10 (01:20:48):
Okay, then thank you, You're.

Speaker 2 (01:20:50):
Welcome by bye bye. Yeah. I mean, the fact that
we're all in the one big actuarial pool is problematic,
really true? Is you know the results of an argument
coming from insurance companies last year where it was about
the conversation of premium increases and they actually even went
on to say the quiet part out loud. Some of

(01:21:11):
the big companies didn't do as well regarding returns in
the stock Marketer returns on their investments, so their shortcoming
in their own corporate investments fell back to the responsibility
of the policyholders. I mean, must be nice. Let's keep going.
Let's go to line number two. Say good morning to
the member for Burgil, the Liberal member for brgil Lapoil.

(01:21:33):
That's Michael King. Michael, you're on the air.

Speaker 11 (01:21:35):
Good morning, Patty.

Speaker 2 (01:21:36):
How you doing doing okay? How about you?

Speaker 11 (01:21:38):
I'm doing good things.

Speaker 2 (01:21:39):
So I have no earthly idea what's going on here?
And I wonder if you have any more information about
what which is a very sudden change in the circuit
court schedule out in your area. What's going on?

Speaker 11 (01:21:49):
Yeah, it seems like we're on the same page there, Patty,
were you know, in the process of trying to find
some information. But just for your listeners. On Friday, there
was a notice issued from Provincial Court that German for
Civil Hearings, traffick Hearings and contravention that cases in Saint
John's Grandfalls, windsor in Stephenville, and the notice also advised
the suspension of the port of ass and the Davert Circuit.

(01:22:10):
So we're kind of confused or you know, trying to
find some information on what exactly is happening here. There's
you know, there seems to be a sudden significant change
to the schedules. So we've reached out on you know,
my colleague Pam Persons, who's the critic for Justice and
public safety, and myself because of the Port of ass
Circuit being involved, and on behalf of the constituents of
Burgias Lapol. I've written the minister to see if we

(01:22:33):
can get some an explanation on what exactly is happening.

Speaker 2 (01:22:36):
So what was the schedule change? Did it go from
a normal schedule to zero or what was the actual change.

Speaker 11 (01:22:42):
So in the Port of Ass case, for example, I
know that December third and fifth is going ahead, but
it just the notice is it's suspended after this, so
it doesn't indicate if it's temporary, if it's full time.
We literally have no idea as of now.

Speaker 2 (01:22:56):
And just for folks based information, I don't pretend to
know everything about it. Contraventions Act is basically about federal
ticketing and the summary conviction procedure much different than provincial ticketing.

Speaker 11 (01:23:07):
Right, yes, so you know, and this is the case
for us, you know about access to services. You know,
most of these a lot of these areas are in
small rural communities like myself, So having folks not having
to travel long distances to urban centers access these services
is certainly important. You know, from my case, we've already
seen challenges. We see challenges and a lot of real

(01:23:27):
communities throughout Newfland labor to access many services, whether that
is healthcare or justice. So we want to make sure
those services are provided to people in the best manner
we can possible. So these are concerning issues for us
for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:23:40):
So what have individuals been told that their case has
now been transferred to a different courthouse and a different
part of the province, or proceedings have been stayed Patty.

Speaker 11 (01:23:48):
From the people that I've spoken to as well, it
seems like they have no idea what's going on. So
there's a lot of questions in this case. I know,
folks try to access services in Stephen though yesterday and
we're unable to do so. So yeah, there's so many
questions in this matter that we literally are trying to
find answers to and hoping that the Minister can provide
those as soon as possible so the public can be
informed on what exactly is happening.

Speaker 2 (01:24:10):
Yeah, have you also tried going to the folks who
actually involved day to day operations at the court as
opposed to simply the Justice minister.

Speaker 11 (01:24:16):
We've spoken to people in the legal community, you know,
members of the community. Have we showed us and the
public who are concerned, and they seem to be all
trying to find exactly what could be the case. You know,
we we're not sure if it's staffing shortages or if
they're permanent changes that are happening in the court system,
but as I mentioned, a lot of questions that are
trying to be answered for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:24:37):
Yeah, so we'll try to get the answers too. But
I guess for folks who have not been given any
information about their case being transferred or dates where youset
or whatever the case may be, you're not going to
find yourself in any legal jeopardy necessarily because they owe
you the information. You're not the one who sets the docket,
You're right, So for individuals who are worried today, I
mean hopefully between yourself and myself and whoever else is

(01:24:59):
working on this file, we can get them some attress
because just being involved in the court system, whether it
be small claims or traffic court or more serious defenses,
it brings a lot a fair amount of anxiety in
the first place, let alone when you have this sort
of scheduleming that's changed.

Speaker 11 (01:25:13):
Abruptly, definitely, and trying to you know, work the system itself,
like you mentioned, is very challenging. So we want to
make it as easy as possible for people to get
their hearings and their cases heard as quick as they
can and efficiently as they can, so they can deal
with these issues, you know from my fear. For example,
as I mentioned in our press release, I'm concerned about

(01:25:34):
access to services and ruling from Land and Labrador. I'm
not sure if this is the first step in which
this government is going to take. I really hope it
is not, but I guess we'll see what happens down
the road.

Speaker 2 (01:25:44):
I appreciate the time. If and when you have an update,
please do indeed.

Speaker 11 (01:25:47):
Share certainly Patty myself or like I said, my colleague
pen persons will certainly give you a call when we
hear some more information.

Speaker 2 (01:25:53):
Appreciate it. Thank you, Michael, Thanks Matty, You're welcome. Bye. Bye,
were cooking the Liberal member for virgel and Foil first,
I'm in a long time. It hasn't been a member
named Parsons between Kevin and Andrew, of course held that
seat for a long long time. Before we get to
the news, let's go to line number four. Good morning
Daryl around the air.

Speaker 4 (01:26:10):
Yes, I've fell of college there.

Speaker 12 (01:26:12):
A couple of weeks ago, the daughter lost her glasses
and I picked up a pair, well, he said, on
the west end, I picked up a pair down the
Duckward Street with blue rimed glasses.

Speaker 2 (01:26:23):
Yeah, because they were blue rimed glasses that were lost.
I'm pretty sure that was so Keith called, wasn't it, Dave? Yeah, okay,
I appreciate the heads up. Just describe them a little clearer.
So a little clearer so that if someone who actually
lost their blue rimmed glasses, they were found on Duckwer Street.
What do you got, right?

Speaker 4 (01:26:41):
Blue wrim crass, but the arms on them are sort
of pink.

Speaker 12 (01:26:46):
Okay, So if you wanted to get my number, you.

Speaker 2 (01:26:51):
To do that. Yeah, Dave's got it here. So if
anyone calls looking for their lost blue rimmed pink arm glasses,
we know where they are. Daryl found him on Duckker Street,
fingers crossed. They get it back to the rightful owner, right,
thanks David or Darryl pardon me? All right, there we go,
bye bye. And you know what has kind of got
some attention was, you know, inside the criminal justice system,

(01:27:15):
not only some of the potential vacancies inso far as
judges go, but it's also what's the status of trying
to add more attorneys to the Crown Prosecutor's office. I mean,
you've heard to describe what's the gentleman at the helm
of that Sean Patton? Is that his name? So he's
painted a very clear picture and it was not ideal
about the actual workload for individual prosecutors. And then the

(01:27:38):
fact that some of the more senior prosecutors have decided,
based on said workload, that they're just going to look
for greener pastors elsewhere. So now maybe more and more
juniors or recent grads or relatively fresh attorneys to the
system now working on some of these extremely important cases
as representatives of the Crown. So I know it's part

(01:27:59):
of Tony Wames pledge not only to add some of
the neighborhood of ninety law enforcement officers, but also to
pay some more attention to Crown prosecutors. Now, the last
level of government did indeed put forward a plan to
hire more prosecutors. I'm not so sure we had a
net gain in the number of people working as representatives
of the crown. But also an important part. And even

(01:28:20):
though I try to talk about preventative measures all the
time as opposed to dealing with someone after they've committed
the crime, the fact of the matter is there are
a ton of these extremely tricky cases on their desks.
I mean, just look at the number of cases regarding
sexual assault and extortion and murder. I mean there's a
murder in the first degree case going through the courts

(01:28:41):
right now. I don't know what actually happened yesterday. I
think there's two murder cases in Saint John's yesterday that
were being heard in the courts. So the serious crime
stats are pretty clear. And so's the opportunity for you
to join us live in the program, which you can
do when you call Dave during this news break don't
go away.

Speaker 1 (01:28:57):
You were listening to a rebroadcast VOCM Open Mind. Have
your say by calling seven oh nine two seven three
fifty two eleven or one triple eight five ninety eight
six two six and listen live weekday mornings at nine am.

Speaker 2 (01:29:15):
Welcome back. Just to follow up on the conversation we
had with Michael King, who's the Liberal member for Burgo
La Poyle, and that's about the change to the Provincial
Court Circuit court schedule. This is from Bron Callahan, who
covers the courts of course for us here at VOCEM
told by the government that at full explanation by the
end of today as to what exactly is going on there,
so at least there's one forthcoming. Just hurt. Sarah read

(01:29:37):
a story regarding a taxicab incident, which gives me reason.
It's just weird how many coincidents happen in the run
of a day. So I'm scrolling through Twitter as Sarah's
reading the news and I come upon a tweet from
Uber Canada which says eighty four percent of riders say
safety is the top reason why they choose Uber. Boy.

(01:29:58):
There's been plenty of examples of some unsafe conditions regarding
getting in an uber or other ride sharing, whether it
be lift or uber or otherwise, so that's one thing. Secondly,
as pointed out by people or in the cab industry,
the traditional taxicab industry in this province, is the difference
between the process to be a cab driver and to

(01:30:18):
be an Uber driver. For one, they all have to
get a criminal background check, but then the other check
that goes into examinations of any reported sex related crimes
is not required by an Uber driver. Now, the government
goes on to say that it's up to the company,
and the company themselves can require their drivers to get it.
But the fact of the matter is, if safety is

(01:30:40):
a concern for the rioting public, and of course it is, is,
let's level the playing field. Let's make sure all of
the background checks of all varieties are required to drive
a traditional cab and or an Uber. Which also leads
into some of the instances reported, especially in the downtown
of Saint John's, is the number of what they call

(01:31:00):
fake ubers that are out there. So you can go
to Amazon, buy an Uber sticker and put it on
your dashboard and pretend you're an Uber driver and they're
actually approaching people downtown or looking for a cab or
looking for a ride, and say, well, I'm an Uber.
If you want to get in. That's not how it works.
We all know if you've ever used Uber in the past,
you have to go through the app and order one.

(01:31:21):
Like if I go to Toronto and leave person International
Airport and go to an Uber lane, if I just
go up to the Uber and say can I get
a ride, they'll say no if they're an actual license
regishired Uber driver. Because the process is clear, you have
to request the Uber. So if anyone approaches you, even
if you're desperate for a ride, be very cautious in

(01:31:42):
whether or not you're going to get in that car,
because if they say to you, hey, I'm Uber, do
you want to ride, they're not. It's not how the
process works, and it's not how the app works. So
it's remarkable that there's a cab story and I'm thinking
ride share and right there, right in front of me,
all of a sudden, my doom scroll on Twitter is
an actual ad from Uber Canada. So he yeah, I
mean the traditional cab companies here. Chris Halla talked about

(01:32:05):
the Christmas or the holiday season and access to cabs.
He says, it's going to be there, and of course,
if you like the convenience of an app, then They
also have a pretty effective and easy to use application
as well. Let's keep going here, let's go to line
number one. Bernard here on the air.

Speaker 13 (01:32:22):
Good morning, Patty, morning to you. No I said in
a notice last night, I guess just too from Cornerbrook
that the Cornerbrook Curling Club has open curling every Tuesday
night at seven o'clock and it's equipment and instruction provided

(01:32:43):
twenty dollars IC fee. But we have a nice small crowd,
a nice welcoming crowd, and we're just trying to introduce
some people to curling and enjoy their night out.

Speaker 2 (01:32:56):
Sounds good to me, So for the twenty bucks, how
long are on the ice?

Speaker 13 (01:33:02):
We play sixteen games, which should be an hour and
a half, but at our speed it kind of takes
maybe a couple of hours with lots of chit chats
and coaching and nothing is rushed, but everybody's kind of
finished by nine o'clock and then we get together and
have a little social after the game for a few
minutes before we head home. So we've been doing this

(01:33:24):
for three or four years and it works and were
we always have room for more people. So just trying
to get the word out and keep things busy.

Speaker 2 (01:33:36):
At the current clothes. How popular has the open rec
night become?

Speaker 13 (01:33:43):
We sometimes we usually get say fifteen sixteen people, you know,
three four games on the go.

Speaker 11 (01:33:49):
We have four.

Speaker 13 (01:33:50):
Sheets, so you know, there's always room for more and
more business and bills to pay and everything else. But
it's it's a good night and a good open door
for people, you know who have never curled before or
might want to come back to the sport. That kind
of thing.

Speaker 2 (01:34:09):
Yeah, when you watch curling on TV, you know, those
players at that caliber, they make it look pretty easy,
even though if anyone who's ever thrown a curling rock nose,
it's not easy. It's the furthest thing from even trying
to come out of the hack in some sort of
graceful position. It's difficult. So are you teaching more technique
or do you also get into the science of curling
because it's a complicated game.

Speaker 13 (01:34:30):
Oh you got i'ven't had it for fifty years. Probably interesting.
I mean, we try to accommodate everybody, but a number
of people these days, even regular curlers, the option is
always there, say to shift into stick curling. And we
have an afternoon group now on Tuesday afternoons too. That's
exclusively for stick curling, so that you don't have to

(01:34:52):
get into the hack and so you don't have to
put on the slider. But yes, it's difficult. I've certainly
heard the comment from people coming into the Curning Club
for the first time who watched on TV and said, God,
I didn't realize how far it wells up the ice.
You know, occurring seat is a long way if you're
going to hit the target up on the other end

(01:35:13):
on TV, it looks relatively close, but if you've never
seen it before, then it's it's a challenging. And I
think I'm going to say as we age, it's almost
like the more the more you learn, the more you
find out there is to know kind of so it's
interesting and I think sometimes just being a recreational curler

(01:35:33):
probably makes you even a better fan. There's a lot
of TV curring fans, But the more you curl and
learn a little bit as a curler, the more you
maybe comprehend and enjoy as you watch. As of course,
I'll be in your way to see the Brier in

(01:35:54):
the in the.

Speaker 6 (01:35:55):
Spring there.

Speaker 13 (01:35:57):
To see what gooj you can do in Saint John's.

Speaker 2 (01:36:00):
Yeah, and that'll be a swan song, be the last
opportunity for people get to look at because you who
will go down as one of the very finest players
of all time internationally. And you know, as you say,
playing a bit of recreational curling, you get a deeper
appreciation for just how good they are. I mean, draw
the button, nothing to it for that caliber player. Just
try it as a recreational player before I let you go, Bernard,

(01:36:23):
what's stick curling? I don't even know what that is?

Speaker 13 (01:36:25):
Okay, Well if you don't know, I mean there is
even a national competition in stick curling. It's a kind
of curling almost like probably in your mind, like shuffle board.
You know, you stand up, you have a stick in.

Speaker 2 (01:36:43):
Your hand, down to the handle of.

Speaker 13 (01:36:45):
The curling and you walk out as far as you
want to walk to the hog line or to the
hog line, yes, and push the rock with you also,
and you still have to put an interurn and out
turn and all the normal intricate season curling. But it's
a lot easier on the knees and the back, say,
because you don't have to sit down.

Speaker 2 (01:37:06):
In the hack. Yeah, now that you mentioned that, I
can picture in my mind's eye now and like the
first time that I ever played the first rock I threw,
if it wasn't for the boards, it would have been
out in the parking lost. And then the next one
I threw, of course got hogs.

Speaker 13 (01:37:19):
So yeah, sometimes pride myself on coaching, and sometimes you
have weekend spiels. We had a nice little day on
Saturday here sponsored by the local Cornwa Kinsman crowd. But
I remember coaching one weekend, and I pride myself on coaching.
But by Sunday, the last game in the spiel, somebody

(01:37:39):
I was coaching was still beating beating rocks off the sideboards.
Oh yeah, which is against the rules. You're not love
having any ricochet shots off the boards and curling. So
it's a great bit of fun. We enjoyed it. I
help out here on the ice crew too, which takes
very good to work with it's in activity and exercise

(01:38:00):
to keep the ice as good as it needs to
be for curling. So there it is Tuesday night. Anybody
that's interested want us to try it once or every
Tuesday night, They're welcome to drop in and all be
there and they'll be looked after and given the best

(01:38:22):
instruction possible.

Speaker 2 (01:38:23):
There you go, Bernard, appreciate the time, good luck with it,
very good, Thank you, Patty, welcome bye bye bye. Yeah,
and it doesn't remind me. The first time I ever
threw a curling stone, I had my hockey equipment on.
We were getting ready to play out in Clairville, and
at the time, the curlers in Clairville, they just curled
on the ice, the hockey ice sheet. So I had
never thrown one, and I asked us they were just

(01:38:45):
putting away all their equipment before the Zamboni went out
to prep for the hockey game, if I could throw it,
and could not believe with very minimal effort, of course
I got ice skates on at the time. Is that
it flew out of my hand and Buddy had to
stop HI before I went through the boards at the
end of the rink. You know, just I guess they
should add Bernard. He's asked Bernard, he's the curling guy,
about what he makes of our two representatives going to

(01:39:06):
the Olympics. You gotta believe Rachel Holman has a great
opportunity to stand on the top step of the podium.
They're remarkable. They only lost a handful of games all year.
It's a pleasure to watch them play. And on the
men's side, and the reason I bring up curling on
the Olympics because it's one of those sports where we
have a legitimate chance to medal. We had a pretty
good Olympics last time around. But on the men's side,

(01:39:29):
the men's Canadian men have not won the gold medal
at the Olympics since twenty fourteen in Soshi. And who
was the skip that year, Brad Jacobs. Who's the skip
this year, Brad Jacobs. In addition, for curling fans around here,
everyone will be familiar with Brett Kalanton who played second
for Guju for all those years and won those titles.
He was he is a fantastic player, one of the

(01:39:50):
best seconds in the world. But now he's actually going
to play not only the men's team event, he's actually
playing for Canada in mixed doubles as well. So two
events for mister glad at the Olympics coming up in
Courtina online in Italy next year. That's good. A break in,
don't go away, welcome back to the show. Let's go
Line number two, Sean, you're on the air.

Speaker 7 (01:40:11):
Good morning, Patrick, Jaylee. How are you.

Speaker 2 (01:40:13):
I'm okay, I suppose so are you.

Speaker 11 (01:40:16):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (01:40:16):
Pretty good, beautiful day ahead of the storm. We always
seem to get a beautiful gay ahead of the storm,
pretty much.

Speaker 8 (01:40:24):
Listen, I'm listening.

Speaker 4 (01:40:25):
I think we're julier today.

Speaker 7 (01:40:27):
It might have been yesterday. I'm out running from Aaron
And you were talking about the courts on the West
Coast and some of them are clos down for a while,
but it's the case the same thing in the East Coast.
It comes to the Trench of court and its specifically the.

Speaker 4 (01:40:42):
Small Flames Court.

Speaker 7 (01:40:43):
So if anyone is in a talent or the respondent
in any case down there, you know, some go on
for a year even because they just don't have the
judges or whatever is going on down there. Maybe you
can find out why they're delaying quote cases for so long.
But there are cases going on for a year or more.
And if you have a case where you're owed money.

Speaker 11 (01:41:03):
And someone's trying to avoid paying it and so on,
it can be.

Speaker 7 (01:41:06):
Pretty frustrating when you've got to wait so long to
get to your proper justice, you know, and justice delayed
is up and justice denied. So in our own courts here,
Apparently a bunch of cases have all been just canceled
and not even rescheduled. Usually they'll reschedule them pretty quickly,

(01:41:29):
but no, they've just been canceled indefinitely until some issues
that are going on in the court downtown in as
any place has been dealt with. And I don't even
know what that is. All I know is I got
to call one time, maybe two three weeks ago that
the from the court that case that I have on
the talants would be delayed and definitely and when they

(01:41:53):
can do it, they'll send me something. But I have
no idea, just left out and left field, which is
very frustrating when you're trying to recover some moneys that
you're own by, sent by a person that you're you're
the appellant and the respondent celting care because longer it
goes on, maybe it'll just be dropped.

Speaker 11 (01:42:10):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:42:11):
Yeah, I mean, and that's one thing, but we also
have in the big i'll call it more serious matters.
There is also that concept of the Jordan rule being
applied that just can be extremely problematic here And just
a reminder for folks who maybe don't know what that
Supreme Court ruling is it's a timely justice.

Speaker 7 (01:42:31):
So in yeah, go ahead, I'm sorry, go ahead.

Speaker 10 (01:42:34):
Yes.

Speaker 7 (01:42:36):
With regard to the Jordan rule, that was the case
where a guy named Jordan had his case extended way
to Locke and finally his lawyer took it to Streme
Court of Canada and Streme Court of Canada to put
in place the eighteen nine I think is eighteen months
and the trial has to be held within eighteen months
from the time that the charge of are laid, which

(01:42:57):
there's a whole lot of other things that are involved
in that that lawyers can delay it. Therefore is extended further,
especially if defense lawyers are delaying it. I'm not so
sure that the Jordan rule applies to the Small claims court.

Speaker 2 (01:43:13):
It doesn't.

Speaker 7 (01:43:13):
Maybe you can find.

Speaker 2 (01:43:14):
Out it doesn't. It's just for criminal proceedings and not
to split hairs. But this has changed everything with the
way that law enforcement even operates, because the clock starts
ticking when the evidence is sworn. So there's a slight
difference between being arrested and the evidence finally being sworn,
so then the clock ticks and the eighteen months is
for provincial court in Supreme Court or superior courts, it's

(01:43:36):
thirty months, and defense imposed delays and when people are
firing their lawyers and that kind of stuff, it does
stop the clock, so defense lawyers can't purposely run out
the clock and get a Jordan ruling or an application
for Jordan ruling. So there's a bunch of different complexities involved.
But yeah, eighteen months of eventual court, thirty months in
the Supreme Court, and it's just related to criminal cases and.

Speaker 7 (01:43:59):
It's not involving a lot of people don't know the
family court. So nothing rips a part of family more
than when a lawyer decides to drag it out of
longs that person can do it, so they can drag
it and just keep getting paid for all the different postponements,
sometimes up to ten plus years, because you know, the

(01:44:19):
lawyer just says no, like like, we'll just keep you
laying this now until he or she finally gets up
and gets in.

Speaker 4 (01:44:26):
So there's no.

Speaker 7 (01:44:27):
Timeline either in the family court, and right now I
think it's as much as two years before you can
get a case hurt in the family court when it
comes to actual trial. If you're just going to get
a postponement, you know, like it's called the case management hearing.
Then that can get done fairly quickly. It's usually very short.
But when you need a trial that might be in

(01:44:48):
a couple of weeks, you can be a year to
two years or more and your whole family unit has
totally disrupted. Is bad enough where you've gone through an
unfortunate divorce or going through one and kids are involved,
maybe not involved, it still very difficult on people's nerves
and especially on their pocketbook, really expensive.

Speaker 2 (01:45:08):
And some of those things regarding this is what mediation Week,
I think is what it was called last week, and
this is specific to divorces what have you is why
we tried to help promote that particular information session as well,
because there are options available sometimes and you mentioned Jordan
rulings and timelines what have you in Nor does it
apply to civil cases involved with whether be you're trying

(01:45:31):
to deal with governments or corporations. That's where we see
the absolutely heavy hand of justice where the folks with
the deepest pockets can wear you out. Being involved in
the court proceeding is expensive, and so if you're trying
to deal with a company or a government, they more
often than not will just simply wear you out. They'll
run out the clock and they'll run out your pocketbook.

Speaker 7 (01:45:52):
And that's so true. Well I've heard it over the
years being criminal journalists, and that you know a guy
who covered the course for years.

Speaker 4 (01:45:59):
It was bad back then. It is so bad now.

Speaker 7 (01:46:02):
And all the courts, it's just outrageous the amount of
stuff going on down there and now nothing going on
in the Drencher Court and the small things court. Everything's
put on hold.

Speaker 2 (01:46:12):
Yeah, it's a tricky system and I try to avoid
it at all costs pun intended. I appreciate the time,
Sean or anything else this morning.

Speaker 7 (01:46:21):
Okay, I just want to say, you know, like everyone
get ready for tomorrow. I don't think you're gonna see
a lot of snow in here, but you know, whatever
you can do. If you don't have snow tires that
we do have some snow, probably a good time to
stay put until you get them on. You know, I
heard you yesterday talk about how bad it was all
the accidents in the last in the rain storm. By
we get the bit of snow on the go and

(01:46:42):
people are going to be a little bit too click
on the peddle they can find themselves in serious crashes
and you know it's not good. So everyone be prepared
for tomorrow. If we don't get snow, we're still going
to get a lot of rain.

Speaker 2 (01:46:55):
Absolutely well, the number of collisions was there was nineteen
in less than three day that the rn C got
called to. So that's just in and around here.

Speaker 7 (01:47:04):
Yeah, and that's the ones that are called in a
lot of people just say okay, here's here's my driver's
license and here's my insurance thing. We'll just get ahold
of the resurse company. So there's lots more beyond the nineteen.

Speaker 2 (01:47:16):
No doubt about it. Sean. I appreciate the time. Thank you, Patty,
welcome you too, Bye bye. And you know, driving in
the winter it's as much a mindset as anything else.
You know, drive to the conditions that present themselves in
front of you. And you know, regarding winter tires, I
am a big promoter for making sure people if it's
all possible. I know some people don't have snow tires

(01:47:36):
because they talk about the cost of them. But I
think if you weigh the cost of not having them
and the potential for a collision, which might be in
the potential for not only your insurance premiums, but maybe
bodily injury or worse. That said, I don't have mine on.
When I made the call to get my tires swapped,
the next available date was the tenth of December, so

(01:47:59):
I'm still waiting.

Speaker 14 (01:48:00):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:48:00):
I have an all wheel drive and I think pretty
good tires, pretty new tires on, so hopefully I'll be
able to navigate tomorrow. But I don't even have mine on,
which is a bit of a concern going into a
potentially messy weather Wednesday. All right, there, let's get a break.
And there's many annual traditions coming up around the holiday season.
One such tradition we're going to talk about right after
this don't go away the.

Speaker 1 (01:48:22):
Tim Power Show during the Conversation weekday afternoons at four
pm on your VOCM.

Speaker 2 (01:48:29):
Welcome back to the show. Well, this year mark sixteen
years of the annual diaper drop. That's work being done
by water Works. Joining us from Waterworks to Steve Tests
here on line number one. Hi Steve, you're on the air.

Speaker 14 (01:48:40):
Good morning sir.

Speaker 2 (01:48:41):
How are you best kind? How about yourself?

Speaker 14 (01:48:43):
I'm doing fantastic, you.

Speaker 2 (01:48:45):
Know, it sounds like a very basic question but having
been through it with infants and babies, diapers are expensive,
so why choose diapers as a charitable opportunity for the
Christmas season.

Speaker 14 (01:48:57):
We started a bout, like you said, about sixteen years ago,
and diapers was kind of not on anybody's radar. So
one of our staff was doing a bit of research
about what we could do to give back to the
community and found the statistic that one in five families
were struggling to afford either diapers or food. So we said,
you know what, this is a good cause. Let's jump

(01:49:18):
on board and we started the Diaper.

Speaker 2 (01:49:20):
Drop and it's unique and you know, once again having
been through it, and thankfully at the time we weren't
having to pick and choose between essentials, whether it be
food or medication or otherwise than diapers, but we knew
plenty of people who were doing exactly that. So what
becomes of the diapers? Where do they go?

Speaker 14 (01:49:37):
So we collect them, give them to the Community Food
Sharing Association and they'll distribute them throughout the Newfoundland and
Labrador over the next few weeks after the holidays they
were over. So yeah, we've been working with them for
the sixteen years now, so they appreciate every single diaper
they get.

Speaker 2 (01:49:53):
No, I bet they do. Give us an idea of
just how many diapers get donated annually.

Speaker 14 (01:49:59):
So to date, over the last sixteen years, we've collected
just over six hundred thousand diapers, and so we collect
abround thirty five to fifty thousand each each season. So
that's that's where we are. So it's it's pretty significant.

Speaker 2 (01:50:12):
Absolutely right. We use disposables for all the obvious reasons.
Can I donate unused new cloth diapers?

Speaker 14 (01:50:20):
Absolutely, yeah, we'll take we'll take them. We'll take even
we had a gentleman in Yester, young dad who had
a son who was into number five diapers, and anybody
who knows diapers knows they come in sizes, and he
donated a box of twos and threes and fours because
the kid had his young fellows have grown them. So
one of the boxes was partially open. But as long

(01:50:42):
as they're not used, as long as during the plastic
will take. We take whatever we can get our heads off,
because they'll go either to the Community Food Sharing Association
and a few of them we actually donate to the
Single Pair of Association as well.

Speaker 2 (01:50:51):
Yeah, because somewhere between fifteen and sixteen percent of children
in this province are living in property, and diapers can
really and they add up. I mean I looked at
your website one time and just for recollection, is just
the first year of your baby's life you're going to
use somewhere in the neighbored with three thousand diapers before
you get your child potty trained. You're looking at at

(01:51:12):
least eight thousand diapers, you know, based on the average
age went people actually get their children potty train. So
it's a big need. Give the folks the details you
know about how to donate, especially if it's cash versus diapers,
where to drop them off that kind of stuff.

Speaker 14 (01:51:27):
Yep, So you can drop them off here at our
office at ninety six La Merchant Road here in Saint
John's Intervals Interval and Music up in Corvid Road is
actually a collection point now, so they'll take them as well.
You can go in on our website and donate there
and all that money goes to the community food during association,
So we'll just pass it right over to them, and

(01:51:48):
anything over ten dollars we'll get a text receipt of course.
So but yeah, no we need to help. The need
is great, I know, and I know you know, Patty,
I know everybody has a choice so what to do
with their money, and you know times are tough for
a lot of people. But there are a few people
out there that you know, like I said, you know,
might have a half a box or a full box
of diaper that your child is out grown. Like we

(01:52:10):
will take those and you know, you don't wonder what
to do with them. It's it's a great way to
get rid of them.

Speaker 2 (01:52:14):
Absolutely, Steve, you've up the good work and good luck
this year.

Speaker 14 (01:52:17):
Yep, and the wiper the whipper. The diaper Drop website
is diaper drop dot ca a if anybody wants to
log in there in donates.

Speaker 2 (01:52:26):
Good man, appreciate this.

Speaker 14 (01:52:28):
I really appreciate your time. You guys have actually been
supporting us for sixteen years, so thank you for your time.

Speaker 2 (01:52:33):
Happy to do it. Stay in touch okay Christmas, Steve
you too, Thanks Steve, Bye bye. Steve Tescher with Waterworks
and in the cash donation world, twenty bucks of donation
equals about one hundred and ten diapers, so you can
help out. It's one of the I don't know how
popular assentiment that might be in people's charitable minds about

(01:52:54):
things like diapers. But if you've ever been there, man,
when your children are infant, no sweat to go through
a dozen diapers a day, no problem. So there you go.
The diaper dropped the sixteenth annual asan if you can help,
please do consider. Let's roll here. Let's go to line
number two. Good morning Joe, you are on the air, Hi, Joe,

(01:53:21):
Joe online number two.

Speaker 4 (01:53:25):
Good morning Petty.

Speaker 2 (01:53:26):
Good morning to you, Joe. A nice day so far,
so good, calm before the storm?

Speaker 4 (01:53:33):
Yes, yeah, Petty, Yeah, that's fifteen hundred and fifty one
dollars reports received.

Speaker 5 (01:53:41):
No.

Speaker 13 (01:53:41):
I phoned easy number.

Speaker 6 (01:53:43):
Petty and I can't be all all tell me we're
not going to receive it.

Speaker 2 (01:53:50):
It was in the budget again this year. Both the
Newfland Labrador Income Supplement was there and the Seniors Benefit
was also there. Who did you call? Did you call
the Department of Finance and the Tax and Fiscal Policy Branch,
because that's who administers it here provincially, even though it
is eventually sent up by CIRA.

Speaker 4 (01:54:07):
Do you have a phone number for day?

Speaker 2 (01:54:10):
Sure? Got a pencil or a pen yes? Yes, I
pay yeah seven zero nine seven zero nine seven two
nine seven to nine thirty one sixty six.

Speaker 4 (01:54:26):
Thirty one sixty six. So they should know.

Speaker 2 (01:54:29):
Yep, they will you pay thanks to that, no problem
to good luck. Yeah you have date you too, buddy,
bye bye.

Speaker 4 (01:54:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:54:41):
So I mean we get a lot of calls on that. Hey,
that bit of money can be extremely helpful. So the
base is basics of that. Once again, it's all based
on whether it be a single or a couple. It's net.
It's founiding net income of up to thirty and seventy
eight dollars. Prior to that increase on the threshold point,

(01:55:01):
it was just over twenty nine four hundred dollars and
that's the maximum benefit is fifteen fifty one, up from
fifteen sixteen. The incoming government, Premier Wacium has pledged to
increase it by twenty percent. I suppose that probably isn't
going to happen until next year's budget, but that's the
plan now. It does have a floating target. The maximum

(01:55:23):
benefit is the forty and folks with the net family
income of thirty thousand and seventy eight dollars or less,
but you're still eligible all the way to net family
income of forty three, three hundred and eighty dollars, obviously
with a reduced benefit coming and it comes quarterly GSDDA.
You that's when you get your senior's benefit as well.
And I probably shouldn't be assuming much, but with the

(01:55:46):
twenty percent pledge of increase by Premier WAKEM, I suppose
that comes with needing to put it in a budget,
which will be whenever next March, next April, something along
those lines. But on that front, it also brings me
back to the ten dollar a day daycare, the subsidies
that are out there to develop or to do the
renovations required to open up a regulated take care. We're

(01:56:07):
out of money. The amount of money that was set
aside for that initiative is now dried up, and we're
told that it cannot or will not be replenished until
next April. There's obviously mechanisms available to replenish some or
all of the fund for all of the applications that
are outstanding. Because we know that we need the daycare spaces,
and even when the government releases numbers about the numbers

(01:56:30):
of spaces that have been created in this calendar year,
that the fourteen and fifty spaces have been created, but
they're not all up and running as of yet, so
there's a long way between created and a space being occupied.
And again I think this would be helpful if government,
and this is throughout the full gamula government, not just

(01:56:51):
daycare spaces. When we talk about the numbers of doctors
added or nurses added, or childcare space is added, we
also need the other number, how many doctors have left
or retired, how many nurses have left or retired, how
many daycare spaces that were in operation on January first
are no longer available, Because the only number that really
matters is the net number, whether we've gained net number

(01:57:12):
of doctors or nurses, or childcare spaces, or social workers
or psychologists or medical technicians, whatever the case we be.
We always hear the numbers added. We don't ever get
a real clear understanding in the same news release or
conversation about the numbers lost, because that's also obviously an
important number. All right, final break of the morning coming
your way. Still a segment left for you to topic

(01:57:35):
up to you if you are in the metro region
seven zero nine two seven three five two one one elsewhere,
toll free long distance one eight eight eight five ninety VOCM,
which is eighty six twenty six. We're taking a break
and then we're coming back. Welcome back to the program.
I'm just sasd if there's a difference in the number
of diapers required if you are a breastfed baby or not,

(01:57:59):
I don't really know, And farebeed for me to talk
about breastfeeding with any position of authority because of obviously,
but we used to have a lady that called every
now and then promoting breastfeeding. So you can read reports
from Health Canada, the American Academy Pediatrics, the American Medical Association,
World Health Organization, and people who promote breastfeeding as opposed

(01:58:22):
to not. Now it's a personal decision and maybe it's
not a possibility for some mothers. And again it's not
for me to get into your business as to whether
or not you do it. But at the time she
shared some pretty interesting statistics as it pertained to breastfeeding,
and again, you do as you see fits your child,
your body. Some of the transfer from mother to baby

(01:58:45):
regarding antibodies and some germ fighting factors. So as a result,
breastfed babies as you read in the American Academy Pediatrics.
They get or part of they reduce the potential for infections,
including reduce the bouts of diarrhea, meningitis, some other respiratory infections.

(01:59:06):
They also talk about protecting babies, not in full but
a greater level of protection associated with things like allergies, asthma, diabetes,
a sudden infanteesth syndrome, SIDS. So again, it's just an
interesting question as to does it reduce or increase the
number of diapers if when my baby is breastfed versus not.
I don't really know the answer. I know breastfeeding and

(01:59:28):
breast milk is more easily digestible, so I suppose that
plays a role in the amount of content that you
keep in your body. I suppose the right way to
put it. I wonder where that lady is. She used
to run like a breastfeeding support group, if I remember correctly,
and every now and then she call in with the
most recent updates and recommendations. But again, as a man

(01:59:51):
and not your partner or your husband, is not up
for me to tell you what to do. I was
just reading on some of the things that are recalling
some of the things that I read in the past.
Finalward this morning goes the line number one doctor on
the air.

Speaker 15 (02:00:03):
Good morning, Patty, how are.

Speaker 2 (02:00:05):
You couldn't be better? How about you.

Speaker 15 (02:00:08):
Couldn't be better? Buy it's a beautiful day. Hope we
might get a bit of snow tomorrow. We might not,
because whatever we get, we get and we go on
from there.

Speaker 2 (02:00:16):
Yeah, winter time it is.

Speaker 15 (02:00:18):
Yeah. So now I figured i'd touched face with you,
and in particular about the Sullivan's chat with you this morning. Yeah,
I I found it was a really really good insight
into where the PC parody the Wakem government should go

(02:00:42):
on an independent review of the m o U and
the kind of direction they should go in. And he's
hoping that they will go in.

Speaker 6 (02:00:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:00:54):
Well for me, like I think as a concept, I
get the independent I understand the thought process behind that.
But until we actually know what the terms of reference are,
we're basically just flying blind. We don't really know what
will be reviewed the terms of reference? Ay, did we
get the best deal? Ever? This will be a waste
of time. So I'd like to see the terms.

Speaker 15 (02:01:15):
Yeah, and you know the whole And I've heard Tony
Wakem Premier Wakem say this a number of times, and
I agree with him. The whole foundation of what he's
trying to do and what the PC parody's trying to do,
is to ensure that we maximize the benefits as best
we can in a deal with Quebec. And you know,

(02:01:37):
I agree with this Sullivan when he said, if we
don't draw a lessons from nineteen sixty nine, then we're
in deep, deep, deep trouble. We all know. I lived
through what you live through a part of it, and
we all know what happened. We all know the challenges
in the attempts to the new flame. Various new flane

(02:01:59):
governments LIBERALLYPC tried to get to make change in that deal,
and each and every time, right up to the Supreme Court,
the government of Quebec slammed its door in our face,
simple as that. And the point being made by Des
Sullivan this morning is we got to figure out what

(02:02:20):
is best for Newfoundland and Labrador and if we get
this one wrong, you know, I've been living with the
nineteen sixty nine one, just waiting for twenty forty one
to happen so that we could get some kind of redress. Now,
if we can get it early, and we can get

(02:02:40):
a good, solid deal for Newfoundland and Labrador if we
can maximize and have an independent really such as you
suggest it, a really high powered independent review, and it
comes back and says, this is a great deal. You know,
we think you should take it, and that's the direction

(02:03:01):
we need to go in. And I find it fascinating
the position being paid by some of the Liberal MHAs
who are still in the House after ten years and
had a chance to do a whole lot of things
in ten years and never did it. And if I
can paraphrase what I think their position is, I'd put

(02:03:22):
it this way. We got to take this one no
matter what it is, because another one may not be
there for us if we delay. In other words, any
deal is better than no deal. And that's the message
I'm hearing from the Liberal MHAs who are really high powered, impatient.

Speaker 4 (02:03:42):
You know.

Speaker 15 (02:03:43):
The Tony wakem government was sworn in on the twenty
ninth of October. They've been in power for a month.
They haven't even had time to get their toes wet,
let alone their feet wet. And every other day, from
the former premier to some of these cabinet ministers, they

(02:04:04):
are picking picking, picking away on little the items and
talking about how important it is for the future of
Newfoundland and libradoor that we accept this MoU so that
we'll have money to spend in the future. Yeah, I
can't speak debt degree that we are.

Speaker 2 (02:04:24):
I can't speak for any Liberal member of the House
of Assembly. But in fairness, Premier wakem and the party,
they've had plenty of time to understand the MoU as
as possible. I mean, they really have. And so to
talk about sending to an independent review, I would have preferred,
even though you're right they've already been governed for a month,
but with the off chance of winning, having some further

(02:04:48):
thought about the terms of reference and who and how
this is going to be independently reviewed. I don't think
is asking too too much, because they pledged it. It
was one of the key promises on the campaign trail,
especially because one of the key planks in the Liberal
plans was the MoU final comment.

Speaker 15 (02:05:03):
I agree with that, and I think that's going to
be forthcoming. I hope that's going to be forthcoming before
the end of this current year, by the the end
of December, and then we have we we still have
a few months. Let's assume that it that there are
some things when the review is done, there are some

(02:05:23):
things that we need to renegotiate. Then we put a
process in in action right away to go down that road.
And if it comes back as an independent review again
that it's a good deal.

Speaker 5 (02:05:38):
It holds a lot.

Speaker 15 (02:05:39):
Of promise, a lot of benefits for Newfoundland and Labrador,
and it's a good deal too for Quebec. Then we
negotiate that and try and get it done before a
new Liberal government comes into power lightly in twenty twenty six.
So I would hope that between now and the end
of December we'll have exactly what you just put forth.

Speaker 2 (02:06:02):
Yeah, and I don't subscribe to you know, any deal
is better than no deal. I don't buy that. I
don't think that's a proper way to think about anything
under the sun, including hydro on the Churchill River. But
you know, whether people like it or not, just part
of the reality is here the go and the coalition
devon there are going to lose. They are not going
to hold government. The part of Quebecquah is going to

(02:06:22):
win in Quebec, and if they do, their leader has
already said he's going to tear it up. So I'm
not saying we should sign just because, but the deal
is gone for all intents and purposes next fall. I
think they have to go to the poll sometime October
of twenty six, and so that's just a fact that's
been well documented in the media. Final ten seconds before
I got to go doc.

Speaker 15 (02:06:42):
Okay, let's say, let's just hope that everything works out.
We end up getting a deal before April, and it's
a deal that is really really promising for Nufland Labrador
for years into the future and helps us pay off
our days. And let's hope for that and hope for
a better year in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 2 (02:07:03):
Appreciate the time, Thank you, Thank.

Speaker 15 (02:07:05):
You, Patty all the best.

Speaker 2 (02:07:07):
Bye byee. Now, all right, good show today. We will
indeed pick up this conversation again tomorrow morning right here
on VOCM and Big Land of FM's Open Line. I'm
behalf of the producer David Williams. I'm your host, Patty Daily.
Have yourself a safe, fun, happy day. We'll talk in
the morning. Bye bye.